Operation Blank Conspiracy
by Verlerious
Summary: The secret government organization called OZ is up to something and it's up to Heero and his team of three to find out. However, the one person they need to find that can help them destroy OZ happens to be the hardest guy to find and capture. Duo/Heero
1. Chapter 1

Pairings: Heero/Duo, Quatre/Trowa

Comments: I came up with this one at work!

Warnings: not quite sure yet

The Blank conspiracy 01

Operation BC: Mission Report #01

Operation BC, or Blank Conspiracy, has begun. Infiltration has been completed. Our team, consisting of Trowa and myself, has finally broken through the terminal and has located several files through the secret government operation from a group called OZ. However, before we could fully process all of the information, they learned about our breech and locked us out. But we now know what our next mission will be.

Under Colonel Une's command, we are to head to Colony L2 to search for the missing person on a file we found. This person is our main objective. The status and name are unknown, but we do have two clues to go by. One such clue is that the target will have the numbers 02 tattooed to their back. The other clue is that they will have a golden cross around their neck. We could not find out a gender for the target which only makes it that much harder. However with our team consisting of Trowa, Wufei, Quatre, and myself, we will be in control of this operation and will have no problems appending the target. We leave at exactly 04:00:00 hours for L2. End Mission Report.

* * *

Time: 12:00:00 hours (one day later)

Their little shabby base wasn't too bad on the eyes, but it wasn't about the looks that Heero was here. He was here on a mission, a mission to find a certain somebody that held a lot of information that they wanted and needed to bring OZ down, if they could even locate them. Like the report said, they found a lead, a connection to OZ that they didn't have before. The name for the target was unknown as well as its gender but, at the very least, they did know the target had the numbers 02 targeted on its back and a golden cross around the neck. And unless they could strip everyone down on L2 that had a golden cross to see if they had the number 02 on their back, they weren't going to have an easy time of this. Not that it was impossible, just very difficult. And that's just going on the assumption that the target was still even on L2.

"Let's start setting up."

Wufei scowled walking carefully around the rundown building, making sure he didn't happen to find a spot with loose boarding that could cause him to fall through to the second level of their three story apartment. "Couldn't have picked a better place than this, could you Quatre?"

"For the situation we're following," Quatre explained looking over at him from where he'd been looking up at the ceiling where a drop of water fell to the ground, "our best chance of capturing the target would be to search the lower class areas."

"If the target is on the run," Heero interrupted, taking over the explaining, "they'll be looking to hide out in places no one in their right mind would go."

"They probably won't have any money to use," Trowa said.

"Besides that," Heero continued, finding a desk up against the wall that he was inspecting for major damage, "We don't want to draw any attention to ourselves. If we do, it's likely the target will be on the run and on the alert. If that happens, we may never find him or her again."

"So when do we start the operation?"

"Tonight at exactly…." Heero looked down at his watch as he said, "22:00:00 hours. We'll split up to cover more ground. Remember, we're looking for someone with a golden cross."

"Adding that to our other information, the target may be an avert churchgoer," Quatre said.

"Or a stripper," Wufei added with a scowl.

"Then Wufei can search the strip joints. Trowa, check the bars. And Quatre," Heero looked over at the innocent blond giving him a nod. "You can check out the churches. Try not to stand out but ask around for any information you can find, or any suspicious attitudes that might clue in on someone knowing something." He sat down on the bed, pulling out his laptop, not quite ready to trust the desk by the wall. That and he could sit a lot more comfortably on the bed anyway, despite the messed up springs and the torn, ragged sheets. "I'll stay here and see if I can't find any more information on #02. For now," he said looking over at them, "outside of this room, we will use the codenames."

"Everyone, please make sure you have your earpieces." Quatre smiled at everyone as he pulled out his own, sticking it in his ear as he gave a nod of reassurance. "If you find anything at all, contact the others."

"Or contact me and I'll come look into it," Heero said starting to type up information on the laptop. "Let's focus on setting things up right now and getting ready."

"Well we might as well get dinner then."

"There's probably nothing else around but all that greasy junk," Wufei said frowning as he started setting things up in his little area. "But whatever, we won't be function at all if we don't at least eat something."

"Whatever you do, be ready by 22:00:00 hours. That's when we leave."

* * *

Dear Diary,

Today has been a pretty good day. I've been helping Father Maxwell and Sister Helen out with the orphanage. The little monsters have been ripping and running all over the place! But they're all good kids at heart. So far I haven't had any problems with that…other issue. As long as it doesn't happen again, they'll never find me. Anyway, I better head downstairs. The kids will be meeting the adopting parents soon. I don't like seeing them leave, but I do want to see them happy with a family. I love each and everyone one of them. Anyway, I better get downstairs and meet some of the lucky future parents before we start. Bye for now.

Duo Maxwell

* * *

Time: 19:00:00 hours

Duo started down the steps of the orphanage, which was really more a church then anything. Actually, it really was a church, an old one that still held all of its holy glory despite the peeling, fading paint covering the walls. The kids seemed to love it too, just happy for the warm bed and the food that was provide, not that there was very much to go around. But they did make due with what they had. A lot of times, they were lucky to get a good deal of donations for the church. It was nice to know that people are there still existed that actually gave a lick about others.

__

Even if there aren't that many of them.

"Duo!" The braided boy heard his name and looked over seeing Father Maxwell standing over with a mangling of other people. Everyone was chattering with each other and having a good enough time, a good sign to Duo that some kids would be getting lucky tonight. He was dressed as his best, or at least what Sister Helen considered his best. He wore a white shirt underneath his black long sleeve shirt and a pair of long black jeans that were at least presentable enough for the others. Hell, it wasn't like he was trying to get adopted himself. He was kind of a special case anyway.

Most of his clothes had holes in them, and almost all of them were starting to get small on him. And let's not even go into the shorts now! Anyway, when it came to clothes, his official function church clothes were the best quality, and that'd be the clothes he was wearing right now. "I need you to tell Sister Helen to go ahead and bring the kids out," Father Maxwell said smiling as he reached a hand down ruffling Duo's hair a bit.

"Will do," Duo said grinning as he gave him a quick salute before heading off. Father Maxwell and Sister Helen…he had no doubt in his mind that if it hadn't been for them, he would have lost his will to live. Instead, they were there to help give him a second chance and now…now he was the perfect 18-year-old.

Sister Helen was just finishing pulling on the shirt to the last child before she looked over and saw him. "Duo!" Her face seemed to light up then, probably no more than his did as he smiled brightly. She was like the mother he never had…and in his heart…he felt she was his mother. "I take it he must be ready."

"Yep," Duo said chuckling as he walked over ruffling the kids hairs as ran over to him surrounding him, each one chattering about something that was probably not all that important. "Looks like some more lucky kids will be finding themselves a new home."

"Hopefully, all of them will," Sister Helen said smiling as she looked at all the kids. "Just tell him I'll be there shortly." She frowned for a second, as if realizing just how many kids there were to keep an eye on. And trust him, there were a lot. There had to be about fifty of them in all. That's just way too many kids! But Duo wouldn't get rid of any one of them. They were all dear to him in their own ways that made them irreplaceable. "Actually, why don't you help me with the little ones?"

"Anything for you, Sister Helen," Duo said smiling as he kissed her cheek.

"Such the charmer," Sister giggled as she rubbed her cheek. "You've been nothing but a big help ever since you came to join us."

"I like doing my best," he said fixing the clothing on some of the kids and helping to clean them up. "How long has it been?"

"Four wonderful years." She couldn't help pulling Duo close as she hugged him gently. "You're like an angel that's come from the heavens to help us. Not only that, but you bring such good fortune. Money seems to just come out of no where to help us at the most needful of times. Thank you, Duo."

He couldn't help the blush on his cheeks as she kissed his forehead. What could he say? She was Sister Helen, the most beautiful woman in the world to him. But it didn't help that all the kids said eww at the small kiss on his cheek. Hey, he didn't do that to them when they got their goodnight kiss. Maybe he should start making it a habit. "You're welcome."

"May God bless you forever," she said touching the silver cross he had around his neck and giving a quick prayer before grinning. "Now, let's go out there and give these little monsters some good homes!"

* * *

Time: 24:00:00 hours

This was the thirteenth church Quatre had been to since he started his portion of the mission. So far he'd had no luck in finding the target with the golden cross or any signs of him. And since it was so late now, he really didn't think he'd have any look in finding a church that was even open at this hour. That's why he was a little surprised when he happened on the huge church in the middle of this dark town with the lights still brightly turned on. He walked up to the church, tugging on it gently to feel the door giving away and allowing him entry inside.

The place seemed even bigger inside and well lit do to the amount of candles set up in each window of the church. Why a church didn't just use electric lights, he wasn't sure. But it gave off a rather unearthly effect to the place. Is this what they meant by the sacred grounds being special?

"Ah…I see people are seeking blessings from the lord even at this nightly hour," the man said smiling and giving a wink of his eyes as he started over for one of those windows with the candles. "I was just getting ready to close up the church for the night and blow out all the candles, but I can never turn away someone seeking help." He smiled as he stopped by the candle, using the little tin piece to smother the small flame dancing on top of each candle. "Tell me, are you here looking to adopt a precious child this night?"

__

So it's an orphanage.

"Actually…." Quatre said starting to walk further into the church, into the warmth of the building and the cheerful man's inviting smile. "I was looking for someone. I thought maybe you could help me."

"Well, I can't say I'd be of much help to you, stranger, but…" the man said, the same guy who must be the father of the church by the looks of it, "I still seek to help those who need it."

Quatre blinked, surprised at how easily the man wanted to help him. He almost didn't even come to this place considering that almost all the other churches were either closed or closing and didn't want to be bothered with helping a stranger this late at night. "Oh well…" He frowned slightly, not realizing how hard it would be to describe someone he'd never seen before. "I don't have anything else to go by but…that this person will has a golden cross around his neck. And," he added before he could be interrupted, "the number 02 tattooed on his back."

Whether it was something Quatre said or not, the man seemed to change, his face darkening the more Quatre kept talking. It became instantly obvious to Quatre that the man knew something about the person he was talking about. "Do you know where I can find this person?"

"I haven't heard or seen anyone following that description," man said, the candle smothering device going still in his hand before he forced himself to continue. "It's pretty dark out, stranger, and I wouldn't want anything harming the children." The old man set the device down as he turned looking at Quatre, a cold hard look in his eyes, no longer looking like that sweet old man from just before. "I think it'd be nice if you left so I can lock up."

"Wait, but-"

"No one here has a cross of that color," came the cold voice, a big difference from the overly sweet voice he'd heard not even seconds before. The words must have slipped out by accident, cause Quatre felt a panic and saw the priest's eyes widen before he turned back to the candles.

"O-Oh." Quatre was startled by the insistence of the man. Why was he acting like this? What was he trying to protect?

__

Of course! The target must be somewhere in this building! If not, then he must know who it is!

"But sir, if you'll let me have a mome-"

"I said for you to leave!" The father turned advancing on him, looking like he was prepared to push him out if necessary. "If you've come here to cause through for our small family or to harm these children, then you are not allowed here."

"But wait, I'm not here to-"

"Out with you, heathen!"

"Father, I think we need some more…oh." The pretty violet eyed boy with the long braid paused at the door, apparently just realizing that something was up. It was obviously not the time to continue trying to reason with the priest with others around. "Sorry, I didn't know you were talking to someone."

"It's ok, Duo," The Father said, smiling at the younger male as if he hadn't been about ready to chew off Quatre's head. He seemed nervous now, rubbing the sweat from his forehead as he did his best to keep that fake smile on his face. "Our guest was just leaving. Weren't you, good sir?" Quatre blinked at the dirty look he was given before he swallowed giving a quick smile.

"Uh…y-yeah…." Quatre bowed his head slightly, though his eyes were drawn to the glint of light shining off the silver cross around the braided boy's neck. "Sorry to brother you all. I'll be going now." The boy looked like he wanted to say something, but Quatre turned leaving out of the church, feeling the priest's eyes burning into the back of his head. He'd apparently followed cause as soon as Quatre stepped out, the door was slammed and barred shut not permitting him entry inside.

__

Well that didn't go so well.

Sighing, Quatre walked off deciding this was a good time to contact Heero and tell him what happened. It was possible that this was the place. Lucky number 13. Well it was a better start than nothing at all. But it wasn't just that, something about that boy…and that dullness of his cross was screaming something to him. Something to do with that and the fact that he was easily able to pick up on what people felt being that it was a special ability of his.

* * *

Time: 12:15:00 hours

Duo frowned watching Quatre, his eyes quickly shifting to Father Maxwell, the other's back still turned to him where he'd slammed and locked the door. He seemed to be stressing out, his shoulders looking tense still from the confrontation. He didn't exactly know what happened, but he had a feeling it wasn't good…and that it problem involved him in some way.

"What was that just now?" Duo asked. Father Maxwell sighed and finally turning around to look at him, his eyes saddening slightly.

"I think someone was looking for you," he said frowning a bit as he started walking over to Duo. "I don't think the painted cross will fool them much longer." Father Maxwell sighed again, stopping in front of Duo and resting a hand on top of his head. "Maybe I let my guard up too soon. I think he's suspicious of us but I was a little nervous. If only I had stayed calm, he probably wouldn't have thought anything of it. I'm…sorry Duo."

"Hey, it's ok," Duo said smiling a bit as he reached out gently hugging him. "Don't worry about it. But….I think I better go hide out for a while…just in case."

Father Maxwell gave him a little smile, apparently trying to reassure him even though the sadness in his eyes didn't go anywhere. "It would be for the best, just to be safe. Make sure to wait a couple of hours before leaving. And try not to come back for a week or two at most. And remember to take plenty of food with you and clothes for changing. And if you have any problems-"

"Calm down, old man," Duo said chuckling a bit before he smirked. "You're talking about me, remember? I'm a natural pro when it comes to survival on the streets. Besides, the kids need the food more than me. I'll just stay at Hilde's for a while."

"Just be careful, my child," Father Maxwell said, finally letting him go.

"I will," Duo said hugging him back, feeling the need to be reassured. The last thing he wanted was to be captured by those guys again. He didn't want to be put through that ever again. "Thanks, and take care of the kids for me, OK?"

"Zero," Quatre said getting through to Heero on his earpiece. "I think we might have something here."

"Good," Heero said, his fingers being heard moving on the laptop as he spoke. It was obvious he hadn't moved from his spot since the mission started. "Stay put and keep an on the target. I'll tell the others know then head out there myself."

"I think he might be the one," Quatre said, his eyes staying focused on the church in front of him. He was standing against the wall of one of the buildings surrounding the church. "When I mentioned the golden cross, a feeling of suspicion filled my heart. I think he's trying to protect someone. Either that or he is the target himself but…" Quatre frowned a bit. "That boy, the guy with the long braid…something's telling me deep inside that he's the target. He's the one we're after…." Even though his heart told him that, he was still surprised by the silver cross around his neck. Maybe OZ had been wrong about the golden cross? But then why did that guy freak out about it? It got even worse when he said something about the tattoo marking. If they could see the guy's back, then maybe….

"If that's true, then the target will be trying to leave the house. Make sure you keep your eyes and ears open until we arrive."

"Alright," Quatre said, watching as the last of the lights in the church windows cut off. "I'll contact you if anything changes."

"I'll be there in about ten minutes flat. Be careful. If you see anything danger, vacate the area until we get there and can make up a plan. Zero, signing off."

"Alright then, Sandrock signing off."

TBC….


	2. Chapter 2

Pairings: Duo/Heero, Quatre/Trowa

Warnings: possibilities of later violence?, supernatural stuff, not sure what all's gonna be in here yet

Author's comment: Yeah it's been done for a while but I'm just now getting around to posting it up. And Spellcaster's had two chapters done for a while but...I don't like where they're doing so they're gonna probably get scrapped and redone. Sorry, guys!

Blank Conspiracy 02

Time: 24:30 hours

It really didn't take long at all when Heero met up with Quatre and the others. And as soon as they met up, Heero had them spreading out again, this time surrounding the building and waiting for movement from inside. He was pretty certain that the target wouldn't try to move now, his guess being that the target, or the male with a foot long braid, was probably smart enough not to try anything right after being found out.

Quatre had explained everything to him on the way, the reactions he saw and felt being brought out through his words. But after a while of nothing but silence, Heero started to wonder if maybe they were wrong. Was it possible that the named target had managed to escape without them knowing? It was possible…but they'd need to confirm that first. "Sandrock," he said talking into his earpiece, "any movement on your side?"

"Nothing yet, Zero," came Quatre's somewhat distracted voice. "But I don't feel any differences emotion wise, so he's probably still in there."

Heero frowned slightly nodding his head before remembering that Quatre couldn't see that. "Alright," he said then keyed into Wufei's location. "What about you, Shenlong?"

"Not a thing," Wufei replied sounding more frustrated and annoyed than anything. "Either we're wrong about this or he knows we're waiting for him." Well there was definitely some agreement on that statement. This was a pretty big church. And with only four of them keeping an eye out there was a 70 percent chance that the target had already slipped past. Heero also took into account that it was dark and that the target was more familiar with the territory and probably knew a lot of secret areas and routes he could take that would make him avoid having to be seen. In fact, Heero was almost sure the target must have made sure he knew the place well before even attempting to stay here.

"Heavy Arms, anything?"

"No. It's as dead as night over here."

What is going on?

Frowning, Heero got up from his hidden spot behind some bushes and keyed his earpiece in to connect all four of them together. "It's far too quiet to me. I'm going in to see if the target has escaped. The three of you keep watch for me."

"Roger that!"

"Will do."

"No a problem."

Moving quietly, Heero snuck closer to the church using the shadows to hide his presence. He didn't know if there was anyone awake or even cameras around, but he didn't want to take any chances. He was already a little familiar with the layout of the church considering that after listening to Quatre explaining how it looked, he'd found a picture of it online. Going through the front door was completely out of the question. Instead, Heero found a small, barely cracked door at the side of the building and decided to take his chances moving into the dark room.

He waited for a moment to let his eyes adjust to the darkness enough to see objects before he started moving quietly, his ears picking up any sounds that would lead him to either trouble or his target. There was no telling how many floors the church really had but from what he could guess, there were three floors including the basement.

At least, if the target was trying to get away he'd probably try to get supplies and things. Maybe the kitchen was a good place to start. Food would be important when away for a long time. As Heero walked further and further into the church, he frowned staring around at the poor living conditions. Were they even sure this was an orphanage? It didn't seem right for children to be living in a decrepit place like this. He had to be extremely careful where he walked or else it would send off a creak through the wooden floors. The ceiling was leaking water, probably from the roof, which really meant it must have been a pretty old place considering that this was underneath the second floor. It was either that or a bathroom having a major leaking problem.

Slowing down, Heero pressed himself up against the wall listening before peering around the corner seeing two older people and the target conversing with each other in what Heero knew to be the kitchen just by the smell that had to have been a previous meal from earlier that day. From the angle he was at, he couldn't see the target's face, but he was able to the see the more elderly look of the male and the soft features of the female talking to the target. They seemed like nice people, both of them expressing their worries for the targeted male.

"Are you sure you're going to be ok, Duo?" the man said, who had to be Father Maxwell from what the site on the laptop had showed him. Which meant the female standing there had to be Sister Helen. And though the website had listed every orphan that had been there and been adopted, not once did it mention a person by of Duo. Heero had made sure he'd memorized all of those names…and Duo was not one of them.

"Trust me, I'll be fine," the oblivious male voice said, the braid swinging back and forth as he was still kneeling down, obviously packing a bag for traveling. Yes, this man was definitely the target. If he wasn't, then he was certainly on the run from something.

"You know Hilde doesn't mind me staying at her place for a while," he was saying, Heero taking mental note to look up more information on that name. It might have been a slip of the tongue, but somehow Heero found himself thinking that the target had to be smarter than to mention that name so easily. But then again, he didn't know that Heero was here waiting to capture him. And Heero was doing everything he could not to give himself away to the target.

"But Duo," the female said, worry on her face as she bit slightly into the knuckles of her fingers.

"If I stay here, I'll just end up putting you and the kids in danger." He turned his head then, giving Heero the first view of his heart shaped face. He was very attractive, very handsome; something Heero found himself frowning at as he admitted those words to himself. The target was beautiful…but the target could probably be dangerous too, like a thorn rose. Heero found himself studying the small, lithe figure trying to figure out what made him so important. Why was OZ after this loose subject of theirs? Was the target part of the experiment itself or someone that was working on the experiment? No, by the fact that they gave him a labeled name like 02, this had to be the subject. Now the question was, what had they been doing with this subject to make him so special?

"Just trust me," Duo said winking an intriguing violet eye at her, "I'll be back. I promise."

"Alright," the man, Father Maxwell said though the frown on his face just seemed to deepen. "Be safe out there. If you ever need anything, you know you're always welcome to come back here."

"I will," Duo said standing up and hugging first Father Maxwell then Sister Helen. "You two stay safe, ok?" he said turning and starting towards the door that Heero was hiding beside. Heero quickly pressed himself up against the wall, hoping the darkness was enough to hide him as he stayed completely still. "Make sure those little monsters eat their vegetables," Duo said walking past Heero oblivious to him hiding in the dark. He didn't even hesitate, walking on down the darkened hallway and leaving the two older members of the church there in the kitchen. Heero waited a moment making sure they were still inside and, after hearing them starting to talk to each other, started after Duo keeping a safe distance. He was tempted to capture him right then and there, but was sure the other would let out a sound before he had the chance. If that happened, there was no telling how many people would come rushing down. The last thing he wanted was to cause a panic. He'd just wait until he was outside to capture him.

The boy named Duo didn't seem to be in a rush as he walked casually down the hallway, taking his sweet time as if savoring the feel of being inside the church. Maybe he was, maybe he really didn't have any plans to come back. If Heero had anything to do with it, he wouldn't be. He was going to be placed under surveillance by the Preventers.

Heero followed Duo, pausing when the braided one went out the door heading outside. He didn't want to go out and be revealed, at the same time he didn't want to take any chances that the braided target would get away. Frowning, Heero quietly pushed his way out the church, closing the door behind him silently, his ears just barely picking up on the hint that the door was locked. He found himself in a garden somewhere out behind the church. A large brick wall that was probably supposed to help keep it closed and secure for the kids to play in so they wouldn't wander off surrounded it.

The suddenness of Duo stopping caused Heero to freeze in alertness. Something was up, something he didn't think was supposed to happen. The other had his back turned, but when he turned around there was an obvious huge grin on his face, his eyes landing right on where Heero was hiding out at. "So you must be the guy following me, huh?" Heero blinked, his frown deepening as he reached down pulling his gun quickly and pointing it towards the boy, not really feeling like he could trust him. "Oh like that'll work," Duo said rolling his eyes before he frowned himself, his hands coming to rest on his hips looking like a lecturing parent. "You're by yourself at the moment huh? If you don't know that guns don't work on me then you must not be one of those guys. So, who are you anyway?"

"Are you subject number 02?" Heero asked refusing to lower his gun despite what the man said.

"Maybe," the subject answered a grin on his face like he was having fun with this. "Why do you ask?"

"I found your information on the OZ organization website. You're the secret experiment, 02, that escaped some years ago." The other seemed to calm for Heero's comfort, especially since he had a gun pointed right at him. Maybe he wasn't afraid of death or something. "They apparently want you back to make sure their dirty little secret doesn't get out. You'd be better off coming with us." He had a feeling that this wish wouldn't happen so easily.

"Mmmm…don't think so," Duo said as he turned, easily jumping up on the brick wall. Heero cursed at the speed and quickly pointed the gun at him, not wanting to risk letting him get away. "It's been fun," Duo said giving him a little salute of the hand. "But I gotta go." As soon as the words were out of his mouth, he was jumping down disappearing from sight on the other side of the wall.

"H-hey!" Heero cursed growling under his breath as he ran towards the wall and jumped pulling himself up just in time to see the tail end of a braid running around the corner of the building. Another curse slipped from his lips as he jumped down starting pursuit, impressed despite the situation at just how fast this Duo character could run. Had he been training for this? "Barton, Chang, Winner! The target is on the loose on the east side of the church! I repeat, the target is on the loose!"

"What?!" Wufei's voice was loud in his ear causing him to have to pull the earpiece away for a second. "Yuy, how the _hell _did you mess that up?!" The sound of footsteps coming out through the earpiece was enough to tell him that the others were running too.

"This isn't the time for that, Chang!" Heero went around the corner, not seeing sight of the braided boy, but seeing both Trowa and Quatre up ahead of him, standing and looking off towards the trees.

"The target has gone into the woods!" Quatre said, still talking into the earpiece. "I'm going in pursuit!"

"No, stay here!" Trowa said from beside him as he turned apparently seeing Heero coming up on them now. "I'll go after him."

"Alright," Heero agreed slowing to a stop in front of them, his eyes turning towards the woods again. There was no sign of the braided boy, not even a trail to follow. By now, he was probably long gone and halfway to his destination. The chances of them finding him again tonight were low. He tried to think of what would have gave away his position when he was trailing after Duo, but nothing seemed to come to mind, nothing at all. And there had been no change in Duo's quiet movements or his silent humming. "But I'm going too," Heero said noticing that Trowa gave a nod to that. "I want Chang to stay here in case he tries to return." He watched Trowa head off into the woods to start the search before he turned to Quatre. "I left my laptop inside the car underneath the driver's seat. I want you to take it and look up anything about a person by the name of Hilde in the area. If we don't find him tonight, that might be are only way to finding him."

"Alright," Quatre said taking the keys from Heero before looking at him worried. "You two be careful out there. We're still not sure what the target is capable of doing. If he's feeling really threatened he might try to hurt you."

"Hn." Heero nodded and turned running into the woods, leaving the other two to their task. He managed to catch up to Trowa, frowning when the other glanced at him then pointed off ahead, just barely seeing the dark moving form up ahead.

"He's really fast," Trowa said frowning. "Faster than you'd think a boy living his life in a church would be anyway. But I feel like he's making this all out to be a game. Even if I slow down, it's like he's still the same distance away from me."

"Let's follow him anyway. He might be getting tired by now." Trowa nodded, the two of them moving as fast as the wooded area would allow them as they continued their pursuit. It didn't seem like they were getting closer though. By the time they'd made it out of the woods and into another part of the city, they'd lost sight of the braided boy.

"He's gone," Trowa said stating the obvious. "He's a fast one." Heero nodded his agreement looking off down the streets not seeing a sign of the braided male at all.

"Faster than the average orphan, that's for sure." Frowning, he reached up pressing his finger to the earpiece activating it. "Zero reporting, we've lot the target again." He sighed hearing a string of curses coming from Wufei as he looked over at Trowa.

"This isn't good," the taller male said, frowning as he looked around. "Now that he's alert that we're looking for him, we might not ever find him again."

"Wrong," Heero said, thinking about how easily the boy had noticed him and how he hadn't seemed surprised to see him. "He was already alert. Somehow, he knew I was in that building following him." He frowned a bit. "Sandrock, have you found any information on that Hilde person yet?"

"Sorry, the only information I could find was a last known residence. Seems like she went missing after a while, at least that's what this report says anyway."

"Hn…" Shaking his head, Heero found himself looking out towards the streets again.

"This is going to be harder than we thought originally," Trowa said standing beside him.

"It already is," Heero said turning and going back through the woods. "In the morning, we'll just go around town and see if we can't find any information on those two, now that we at least have a name to go by."

"Roger that!"

* * *

Time: 01:15:00 hours

True to his word, Duo was hiding out at Hilde's until things blew over. He didn't mind that he said her name, sure that he'd made it where no one would find her. That was because, outside in the world, Hilde changed her looks and went by the name of Mary. There was no way those guys would find her. He'd even taken the time to hack into the colony directory and edit a few things there just to be on the safe side. For all anyone knew, Hilde was as good as dead, or just plain missing. He did tell her she could tell her family and friends that she was alive, but she wasn't to tell there where she was now or what her name was.

But at the same time…he didn't force it on her. He told her that she didn't have to do it, that he could handle himself. But she wanted to. She was willing to give up all of that, her secure job, everything to make sure that he was safe. Duo had even made sure that both Father Maxwell and Sister Helen didn't know about it, bless their souls. If he could avoid anything happening to them at all, he would.

"Duo?" Hilde stretched, her eyes barely opened as she looked back at something before looking at him again in her PJs. Well, what did he expect? What was standing at her front door at, what time was it now? "It's 1:16 in the morning. What are you doing here?"

"I need a place to hang out at for a while," Duo said smiling and gesturing at the bag hanging on his back. "I was hoping I could stay here."

She blinked her eyes trying to adjust them to being awake before alertness filled them, looking like it instantly woke her up once she thought about his words. "Oh my god, Duo. Are you ok? Are you hurt? Did something happen?"

"Nothing big," Duo said shrugging his shoulders as he smiled at her being let inside the house, the door being closed behind him. "Just some guys looking for me." He flopped down on the couch, used to the place even though he hadn't been able to make it by for a couple of weeks now. "You don't mind me crashing here for a while, do you?"

"Of course not, Duo." She frowned walking over and sitting on the couch, turning so that her attention was on him. She didn't look happy, and it had nothing to do with being woken up in the middle of the night. "Are you in danger?"

"A little," Duo said frowning a bit as he thought about those cold blue eyes staring at him. "Those guys found my info on the OZ site. I wonder how they could have considering I erased all of it. Maybe they put more stuff up? But just how much?" He frowned noticing that he was rambling now. The girl could probably care less about what he was saying. But then again, they'd been best friends since he'd come to this dump called L2. Not that he regretted it one bit. He'd met a lot of people here, and he wouldn't trade them in for the world. Or for the colony, in this case. "Hope you don't mind, but I'm going to borrow your computer for a bit."

"Sure," she said smiling as she stood up tugging her Pajamas, which really just looked like a huge shirt, down over her butt. "Just be careful, ok?"

"Thanks babe." Duo winked at her as he stood up starting down the hallway of the small apartment to the room that held the computer. He completely missed the blush Hilde had on his cheeks. "Anyway, I'll only be a second. Go get some rest. You've got a lot of work tomorrow right?"

"Oh don't remind me" she groaned out before walking off towards her bedroom. "Night, Duo."

"Night, Hilde."

tbc...

Blah, whatever was down here earlier, it's gone now. Whoo! I must have gotten copypaste happy or something.


	3. Chapter 3

Pairings: Duo/Heero, Quatre/Trowa

Warnings: possibilities of later violence?, supernatural stuff, not sure what all's gonna be in here yet

Author's comment: And yay Spellcaster is well...partically done? But enough about that! Heer's part three of BC.

Blank Conspiracy 03

Time: 12:00 pm

Operation Blank Conspiracy- Report #3:

The mission so far has been nothing but a complete bust. We failed to capture the target and have lost whatever lead we had on him. Still, if I was to make a bet, I would say that our target's hideaway is probably somewhere near the Maxwell Church. I'll have Sandrock stay behind and keep an eye on the church via the cameras we installed in the nearby trees. We might actually be able to find out some information since we now know the target's looks and first name. That's the job the rest of us will be doing. No matter how careful he is, the target can't have hidden from everyone. I will put the reports on hiatus until we can find any further information. End Report.

* * *

"So how exactly are we going to go about doing this?" Wufei asked causing Heero to look up from where he'd been typing up the report.

"Hmmm." Resting a finger against his lips, Trowa frowned glancing at the two of them then at Quatre who was sitting on the other bed looking up information on their secondary laptop. "The simplest way would be to check out the sleazier parts of town. The Black Market, the place where no one has a name."

"Makes sense," Wufei said frowning also now. "But we'll definitely be using a lot of money to bribe them."

"If that's the case then so be it," Heero said setting the laptop aside as he got up from the bed. "We can't risk the chance of him jumping on a transport to another colony."

"Right," Quatre added standing as well. "And I've actually gone ahead and looked up some locations that might be of use to us." He picked up a stack of papers off the bed and started passing them around. "Here's some maps. I've circled the areas that I think we should look into. Heero, why don't you take the west side of town? Since there's not much going on up to the north, if you don't mind, Trowa, can you take care of the north and the east? And Wufei, go ahead and look into the south side."

"Good thinking," Heero said glancing over the map and marking what places in his mind he'd like to check out. "Let's head out as soon as it starts getting dark. We'll have at least a thirty percent better chance of finding at least some clues."

* * *

Dear Diary:

Looks like I did a good job losing those guys. There's no knock at the door yet. Course, there shouldn't be, I mean…I made sure to rewrite any information on Hilde in the records as soon as she decided to help me. I didn't want her getting hurt. No one should able to find me here. I feel bad for coming into her life like this and destroying it, but…well…it hasn't been completely bad. She's been a very good friend through all of this. And I'd do anything and everything to protect her, just like I'd do anything to protect the Maxwell Church. I just hope that no one finds out what my weakness is. Like those guys from earlier….

I'm kinda curious about what those guys want with me though. They don't look like they're from OZ. No, definitely not. If they had been, they would have caught me before I even had time to blow my nose. Who are they working for then? Maybe I should do some research on them and find out. It won't be very good if I find out they're just some company that's just like OZ. Yeah, maybe it's time for a little bit of investigating. If they were looking for me, they must be somewhere close by. Besides...that one guy was kinda cute. It makes me not mind being caught by someone like him. Heh…sounds like this group might actually be some fun.

* * *

"So remember to lay low and don't go anywhere!" Hilde was saying as she started packing up her stuff for work. It was unexpected…and it was perfect timing. If Hilde was gone, he didn't have to worry about her getting hurt or worse. Besides, she probably wouldn't let him out of the apartment otherwise. "I know this is short notice but the job really wants me to go on this business trip with them. They might as well start paying me more. They're always calling and bothering me wanting me to do everything for the little measly pay they give me."

"They're cheap, there's no way they'll pay you more," Duo said grinning as he lounged out on the couch stretching, his braid falling off the side and curling up on the carpeted floor. "Course I wonder if it has anything to do with me at all."

"What are you talking about? Of course it doesn't!'' Hilde said smiling at him and walking over as she ruffled his hair a bit. "What would make you think something like that?"

"I just can't help that I'm feel like I'm putting you in danger somehow. You shouldn't have even allowed me into your life. What if they find out where I am and try to hurt you?"

"Just promise me you won't go doing anything stupid while I'm gone and we'll leave it at that," she said smiling a bit as she went back to finish packing her stuff. "I don't want my apartment blown up just because you wanted to bake your cookies faster."

"I'll try not to," Duo said laughing as he sat up on the couch. "But no promises on not doing anything danger. But if I find it's necessary, I'll do it." He stood up from the couch. "Now you better get going before you're late. You know how paranoid they get when you're not there."

"I know I know," Hilde said roughing her eyes as she came out of the bedroom with two bags being pulled behind her. "Anyway, time to go." She stopped beside him kissing his cheek as she smiled at him. "Don't wait up for me."

He blushed a bit smiling at her as he started to reach for her bags. "Are you sure you don't need help with your bags?"

"Positive!" She said slapping his hand away. "I don't want you leaving out and drawing attention to yourself. Just sit still, ok? I bought some food in the fridge and there's some extra cash underneath the rug if you need anything. Oh and make sure you lock up and don't answer the phone and if you see any mail, just leave it. I'll get it when I get back. And be careful not to-"

"Ok ok, I get the point, Mama Hilde," Duo said getting behind her as he started pushing her towards the door. "Now get going before you're late."

"Ok ok." She said blushing slightly as she started walking. "I'll be back in a week. Try not to break anything! And Duo." She stopped just outside the door looking back at him and smiling softly. "Be careful, ok?"

"Alright," Duo said smiling at her. "I'll be as safe as a baby in a crib."

_A baby in a crib surrounded by alligators, anyway._

"Alright…" She smiled and waved at him before she grabbed her stuff rushing down the steps. Duo smiled in return waving at her watching her disappear down the steps before closing the door and turning walking over to the window. He waited a few moments, watching the cab Hilde climbed up into drive off before he grinned and reached down picking up his hat from off the coffee table along with the keys to the apartment.

"Now, time to investigate," he said pushing some shades on and grinning before he went out the apartment closing the door behind him.

* * *

Time 7:30 pm

"When you said check out the sleazier places, I didn't expect it to be the whole downtown area."

"Stop complaining," Heero said over the ear piece. "It's the only lead we have right now."

"And you really think an orphan church boy's gonna hang out in an area like this?"

"It's still only a fifteen percent chance that he's even in the area." Quatre's lighter voice said in the earpiece. "Still, fifteen is better than nothing at all."

"Before you said it was a thirty percent chance," Wufei muttered as he kept walking, shoving his hands into his pockets. "But I'm still looking at our chances of finding him." He sighed as he stopped at a corner looking up at the sky and holding the earpiece with one hand, feeling like he was talking on a cell phone. "Anyway, I'll do what I can here. If you guys find anything out, fill me in. Shenlong out." He grumbled as he cut off the connection glancing around trying not to stand out but trying to find anything suspicious. "This is harder than it should be. We should just shake the information out of that priest and be done with –" His words were stopped as he was bumped into roughly by some guy in a hat and wearing shades.

"Excuse me," the man said as he kept walking, moving casually.

Wufei frowned nodding his head. "It's alright." In his mind though, he was quickly processing this information. Though it was dark enough that he couldn't fully see the male's features, the fact that the male was wearing sunglasses this late in the afternoon when the sun was down definitely warranted its own share of suspicion.

"Hey," Wufei said frowning as he started to turn to the man. "Stop right…." The words died on his lips as he saw that the man was already gone, the tail end of a braid running around the corner of the building in front of them. "Fuck!" He started in pursuit as he tapped into the earpiece to contact Heero.

"Zero speaking," Heero said through the earpiece. "What's wrong?"

"I just got bumped into by some suspicious looking guy," Wufei said as he kept up only barely seeing the end of the braid as it disappeared around corner after corner. "He's moving fast," he said before checking at his pockets. "He's got my wallet too."

"What was he wearing?"

"A black hoodie and cap. And strangely enough, sunglasses."

"This time of the night?" Heero paused on the line obviously thinking about something before he continued. "He's hiding his eye color."

"What was that?"

"Nothing, just keep up with him."

"Damn it!"

"What?"

"I lost him," Wufei said frowning and staring at the dead end not even sure how the guy could have escaped. He was fast, too fast. Was he even human? Even Wufei with his Preventer trained body couldn't keep up. Just what kind of drugs was this guy on?

"Roger, I'll contact Sandrock and see if he can pick up a trace on the wallet."

"I'm already on it," came the light voice. "It looks like he's close to where Zero is. Do you think you can catch him?"

"That isn't an option," Heero said sounding as serious as ever. "Where is he coming from?"

"From the south. Go right two blocks and you should meet up with him. But you better Hurry, Zero. He's moving pretty fast."

"Alright," Heero said, the sound of movement telling Wufei that he was heading that way. "Shenlong, go ahead and try to get here. Sandrock, stay on the line with me."

"Alright. I'll contact Heavy Arms and let him know the situation. Shenlong out."

* * *

Heero was running while he was on the line with Quatre, picking up on the changes in direction that the target was taking instantly as soon as Quatre mentioned it. But now, he was closing in and it was only a matter of waiting as he pressed up against the side of the wall waiting on 02 to running around it. "Zero, he's here. Get ready."

"Roger," Heero said preparing himself waiting on the word from Quatre.

"Now!" Quatre yelled out in his ear giving Heero only a second to respond as he jumped tackling Duo's body down to the ground, his long braid waved around in the air.

"Oof!"

"Good job!" Quatre yelled out before having to force himself to calm down. "I'll tell the others to meet up with you."

Heero just nodded even though he knew Quatre couldn't see him, his eyes focused on the braided boy beneath him as he kept him pinned down and reached out taking the glasses off finding the pretty violets staring at him, the eyes not even looking surprised.

"Looks like you caught me," Duo said smirking up at him easily.

"You don't look surprised," Heero said looking at him suspiciously. This guy had just been caught yet he didn't even seem to care. Was this a game to him?

"Might be because I planned to be caught," Duo said the grin not leaving his face for a moment.

It made Heero a little suspicious of the braided boy. "Planned?"

"And you caught me pretty fast too." Frowning, Heero got up grabbing hold of Duo's forearm to make sure he didn't get away as he pulled him up. "Wow, you're strong."

"We need you to come with us."

"I don't think so."

Heero's eyes narrowed looking at the guy, wondering just how he thought he was going to get away from him now that he was caught. And with the others closing in on them, there was nothing he'd be able to do this time. "It's not a request."

"How about no then."

"What does OZ want with you?" Heero demanded glaring at him figuring he should at least have some answers out of him.

"You might be cute," Duo said grinning and winking an eye at him. "But that doesn't mean I'll do anything you say."

"I…" Heero's eyes widened slightly, his cheeks turning a red tint as he opened his mouth trying to reply, not used to this type of person. "…."

"Now that's cute." Duo laughed staring at him, violet eyes shining with excitement. "Tell you what, you tell me why you want to know and I might just give you some information."

Heero cheeks were still red but he glared at him, getting himself under as much control as he could as he tightened his hand. "We need your cooperation in order to put a stop to OZ. Whatever their plan is, it looks like they're after you. It's our job to protect you."

"Protect me?" Duo asked looking surprised before he starting laughing. "Sorry, but I don't need protecting, buddy. If you hadn't noticed, I'm good at running and hiding. OZ won't find me."

"What does OZ want with you?" Heero asked, feeling like a headache was coming on. Could he at least get SOME kind of answer out of him besides these smart ass comments? Though he did have to admit…this Duo guy could run like hell.

"What else?" Duo asked looking thoughtful of a moment. "World Domination."

Heero blinked. "What?" His hand loosened on Duo slightly, the braided one taking the opportunity to pull himself free as he turned bolting off. "Hey!" Heero quickly went in pursuit determined not to let him get away this time.

Frowning, Heero picked up his speed moving as fast as he could as he went around the corner looking for him, cursing under his breath when he didn't see anything there. "Damn it!" He glared around him not seeing any places that the braided one could have gotten too. How could he have…no wait…there was a small opening leading under the fence. Could he have really fit under there? "Sandrock, I lost the target."

"What! What happened?"

"No time for that," Heero said frowning not wanting to even think about it. He was careless again, that's all. "Tell me if you have a reading on Shenlong's tracer."

"Y-yeah," Quatre said, some typing going on in the background. "It's just a couple of blocks away from your current location due north."

"Alright," Heero said moving back enough to run and jump over the fence as he went north. "I'm going in pursuit, stay on the line with me."

"You're getting closer, already," Quatre said though he didn't sound too happy about it. "It's to your left…it seems like the target isn't even running anymore."

A frown lifted to Heero's lips thinking that maybe the target had tossed the wallet and kept the money. But when he got to the little alleyway, the only thing he saw was a couple of homeless people flipping through an open wallet and splitting the cash between them, the cash that had been meant to draw 02's attention to them.

"The target has dropped the wallet," Heero said glaring as he clenched his hands tightly. This meant that Duo knew all along what he was doing. They'd been baited…the feeling reminding Heero of last time when he'd first met Duo. The boy had obviously known that the Preventer had been following him. So where was this information coming from? Did they have cameras on them that he didn't know about? "I'm heading back to the room now. Tell the others to do the same. There's no point in staying here."

"Roger that," Quatre said. "I'll tell the others."

"This is a pain," Heero said rubbing his head. He thought he felt eyes on him though and stopped turning back only to see nothing but the homeless people he was leaving behind. Where had that Duo person disappeared to? Maybe they were approaching this all wrong. The way Duo moved, it wasn't like a normal person…no he was pretty smart. They needed to start treating him like he was a detective…like he was a Preventer on the loose.

Time: 9:30 pm

Dear Diary,

Well, that was fun. Looks like these guys might not be so bad after all. They're pretty clueless about the whole thing too. I wouldn't mind meeting the others as well. Like that blond guy, he looked nice. Or maybe he was just faking, I don't know. Boy, if Hilde knew what I'd done, she'd kill me.

Still, something's bothering me. There's something strange going on at the Maxwell Church. How do I know that? Well, cause I set up some cameras there a while back before this all started, that's how. Anyway, the problem, besides the fact that these guys haven't even been there since they installed their own cameras, is the fact that some strange people have been showing up there. Some strange people…that I'm almost certain came from OZ. How did they find out about the Maxwell Church? Well either way, I think I need to go investigate. I haven't been seeing anyone coming out of there or going in there in a while. Wait…is that a note on the door? Shit, it is! It's saying they're out of town! No way! Father Maxwell and Sister Helen would never leave the orphanage! They didn't even have that kind of money to go anywhere! What's going on here?! Sorry, diary but I gotta go!

* * *

Time: 12:00 PM Two days later.

Operation Blank Conspiracy- Report #4:

Operation Blank Conspiracy is not going well. Since that time, we've only managed to find 02 one time; however, he evaded our team again. He is well aware of us and had at the time made purposeful contact with us. 'Hhe hasn't tried anything further since then. We did learn something through the conversation I encountered with 02. OZ wants world domination. Whether that is true or not will need further investigation.

However, within the last two days we've noticed something a bit odd about the Maxwell Church. At least three strange figures have showed up there and since that time, no one has left the building. I believe something may be going on there. While normally we wouldn't waste time on something like this, the Maxwell Church is currently our only strong link to 02. For now, I think we will investigate what's going on there and find out who these strange men are. There is a possibility that they are from OZ. If so, we will have to find 02 and get out of here as soon as possible. We will take the time to make out a plan. End mission Report.

* * *

Time: 1:30 Two days later.

Wufei slammed his hands down on the wobbly kitchen table, paperwork scattering about on the floor as his eyes twitched in frustration. "This is getting us no where!"

"Shh…Wufei, calm down," Quatre said softly, his eyes somewhat swollen from having stared at the computer monitor for almost two days. "We do have ears around, remember?"

Wufei frowned and lowered his voice, but the anger he felt still came out loud and clear. "We've been at this for almost a week now and still we haven't found a thing! On top of that, we haven't seen the target since that last time. Now we've got those weird guys inside the church and no way of knowing if people are even still alive in there. We need to do something!"

"He's right," Trowa said walking over to the Quatre's bed and sitting down beside him. "It's been too quiet. We need to get into contact with 02 some kind of way. We really don't have much time to waste."

"And that's why we need another plan!" Wufei said vocally as he glared around at the three of them. "I bet if we went out to that church, we could force some information out of the priest."

"That's unwise," Heero said frowning from his spot on the bed, his laptop open and shining up at him. His eyes didn't look nearly as bad as Quatre's but they weren't perfect either. He was tired, they all were. And this was starting to wear on their patience and their energy.

"I know," Wufei said sighing, releasing a little bit of the pent up frustration he was feeling. "Damn it, I'm just getting annoyed. I just wish we could bust inside, find 02 and be done with this." He moved from the table and heading for the door. "Sorry, I need to take a walk and get some fresh air. It's getting too foggy in here."

"…Actually, that's not a bad idea," Quatre said as he started typing onto the laptop.

"…The walk?" Wufei asked lifting a brow as he looked at him like he was insane.

"No, hear me out." Quatre said talking as he typed, not continuing until he had their full attention. "Ok, I doubt Father Maxwell knows where 02 is," Quatre said even as he continued typing quickly on the laptop. "From what I know of 02, he's good. When it comes to hiding, he's the best. He's obviously had this planned out for a while, so there's no doubt he probably hasn't told anyone of his location."

"Then why suggest talking to the old man for nothing?!" Wufei yelled out threatening to go out the door on him.

Quatre shook his head and held up a finger signaling for him to stay still and to stay quiet. When Quatre was on a roll, it had to be a good sign. "Think of it this way…this church is very important to 02, right?"

"Go on," Wufei said frowning, his eyes twitching slightly as he waited impatiently by the door.

"So…let's set up a trap," Quatre said finally looking up from the computer. "We'll use the church as the bait." He sat up as he turned the computer around showing the group of them the church. "It's obvious that something is going on right now inside of that church. We just need to bring it to the attention of 02."

"And what if he already knows about it?" Wufei asked thinking that if 02 knew then he must be already planning something.

"Then let's be ready for it if he does. If there's something wrong, and he does show up, then we can be ready to capture him or rescue him depending on the situation. Either way, we need to be inside that church if something happens."

"It sounds good," Heero said glancing over at the group. "The problem is how do you plan on getting inside? Maxwell himself wouldn't trust anyone to go inside and I'm sure OZ wouldn't either if they're there."

"Then let's use a disguise," Trowa added in drawing everyone's attention to him…everyone but Quatre who had quite the wary face.

"A disguise?" Heero asked, getting interested by the looks of it. "What kind?"

"It's an orphanage, right?" Trowa said stating the obvious for them though it was obvious that he was up to something. And it seemed to be something that Quatre didn't appear to like. Wufei frowned, glancing at Heero noticing the amusement in his eyes. This must have been something he missed out on cause everyone got quiet.

"Yeah, it's an orphanage…so what are you planning?" Wufei asked, wanting to get on with this. What was it they had in mind?

"Well…they're more likely to welcome a nice newlywed couple than a guy or two showing up to adopt children."

Quatre blinked before he started to blush, his eyes widening. "Y-you can't be serious, Trowa! You said that wouldn't be necessary for this mission!"

"That was before we learned 02 lived at a church orphanage," Heero said inputting his approval of this plan. "You said it yourself, 02's weakness will probably be there. If he's lived there for this long, then he'll definitely be coming to check on the people there. He's attached to them."

"We should probably go get some supplies then," Trowa said standing to his feet.

"But-"

"Don't worry, I've already brought some clothes from our last mission just in case," Heero said gesturing to the suitcase over by the wall.

"But-"

"I'm surprised," Trowa said walking over to the suitcase and starting to open it. "I expected most of your supplies to be electronic equipments and weapons."

"It's always good to be prepared," Heero said returning to his computer, even as he glanced at Trowa watching him pull out the short little skirt and blouse. "Wufei, what do you think?"

Wufei blinked his eyes before he shrugged his shoulders. What did he think? Well obviously they were about to dress the blond up in drag and force him to play a part of their little game. But as long as it wasn't him…and as long as it got the mission done with. "Whatever, as long as we can get 02."

"It might be a good idea to practice a little so it looks more natural," Heero said, looking completely serious when he said it.

"You're right we should practice," Trowa added looking just as serious.

"Ah…"Quatre blushed looking away from them as he stood up from the bed setting the laptop aside. "I'm going to go get us some food. You guys stay here and please try not to destroy anything." He didn't bother looking at them as he slipped past Wufei not even looking back.

"…And what was that about?" Wufei asked lifting a brow, noticing the hasty retreat the blond made to get away from them.

"Some time back, we had a mission that involved a married couple meeting our suspected targets at a restaurant for dinner." Trowa shrugged as he set the offending articles of clothing on Quatre's bed. "As you can see…Quatre was the wife. I played as the husband since we needed Heero to watch the monitors."

"Ah I see," Wufei said shaking his head. "I'm not much for drag…so don't even think about put me in a dress!"

"Wouldn't dream of it," Trowa said relaxing on Quatre's bed and looking down at the laptop at the picture of the church they'd gotten from their cameras. "Still, this might actually work. Once we're inside, we'll be able to control the situation, or at the very least know what we're dealing with."

Heero nodded looking at the laptop again. "Just be sure that everyone is prepared if we have to defend ourselves and everyone else."

"There are a lot of kids there," Wufei said thoughtfully and frowned. "If you don't mind, I'll keep an eye out from the outside. We really don't need everyone rushing in, especially if they try to trap us from outside."

Heero nodded knowing exactly what Wufei meant. "Alright, just be careful." He himself was going to try sneaking in from the back to see what he could find. They knew what their objective was. No matter what, they needed 02 alive and on their side. If something happened and one of them got hurt, they were just going to have to leave them behind. Wufei knew everyone was prepared for that…even him. Still…it never amazed him how much could be sacrificed for the sake of one person.

"Let's get started when Quatre gets back," Heero said standing up to take a break from his laptop. "This may be out last chance to try to catch him. Everyone…be careful…but remember the objective."

TBC…

Mmmmm well, Quatre in drag….poor thing. Anyways, finally updated on this story, yay! Wow I'm sleepy.

Many lives for one life.

At least now we have an idea of OZ's goals. Now we just need to find out why and how?

* * *

"I'm good at running and hiding."

The way he's covered up, he's definitely hiding himself for a reason….his hair…and his eyes.


	4. Chapter 4

Pairings: Duo/Heero, Quatre/Trowa

Warnings: possibilities of later violence? supernatural stuff, kinky moments, not sure what all's gonna be in here yet

Author's comment:

I should be beaten for how long it took me to get back to this. A few little comments for this though. Doing this update to let you know I haven't given up on this story yet despite that it's been like :counts: almost five years? Wow…but yeah. I do have about three chapters if this completed already though at this point in time my main focus is to finish up Princely Garbs first.

Once that's done, I will be focusing on this story as my primary. For those reading Spellcaster…that one's really gonna need to go through a rewriting. It's been too long and I've changed styles too much to continue it as it is. For those reading the Vampire Conspiracy sequel, that one's also in the phrase of a rewrite seeing as how it changed a lot too. Lol and that'll probably be the third story I'll start working on, and Ozzy Play Pen will also go through a rewriting. Also have a new VincentxCid story in the works though I'll have to put it on hold until I finish all my old stuff. Anyways, hope you enjoy this chapter. Depending on how much I have left towards Princely Garbs, I might post another chapter for this soon. Just not too soon.

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Operation Blank Conspiracy 4

Time: 15:00 hours

Did he mention that sometimes he didn't like his teammates? Because right now at this very moment, he was feeling more than a little bit of frustration which was uncommon for him. It didn't help that Trowa, who usually stayed pretty stoic and detached, had been smiling this whole time they left from the apartment building. Quatre tried to look natural, but it was hard to do when you were walking around in drag.

At least he managed to convince the others to let him wear the long dress verses the mini skirt and blouse. He wore a sunhat as well to help hide his face, both from the sun and from the people around him. The last thing he wanted was to alert Father Maxwell to his presence, at least not right away anyway.

The two of them stopped by the door, Trowa wearing a nice pair of slacks and a button up shirt looking at least the part of a wealthy man even if he wasn't anywhere close to it. They didn't stop to knock to at all, Trowa reaching down and opening the squeaky door letting Quatre go in first. It wasn't just for courtesy's sake, Quatre was just one of the few to know the layout of the church from the inside.

Even though they didn't wear their ear pieces on them, the hat Quatre wore and the small rose Trowa wore in his shirt held both microphones and cameras. They wouldn't be able to hear what Heero or Wufei said to them, but at least it would work the other way around.

Quatre moved at a cautious gait, frowning when as he glanced around the room quickly. There were a lot of things he had expected to see when he first went in. Crying children, angry men pointing guns at the hostages, death threats telling them to get down as soon as they came inside. He didn't expect silence.

It was empty. The whole room was empty. He didn't like it. He knew they hadn't escaped otherwise they would have seen something on their surveillances. He glanced at Trowa seeing the unease there too before the both of them moved quietly. The enemy probably knew they were there by now, or if not they should have known from the sound of the front door opening.

Trowa tried closing the door quietly but the rusty hinges didn't agree with it. Still no one came out pointing guns at them. Then the two of them heard the loud thump of something falling from the ceiling and knew something was wrong. It only took a glance at Trowa before they moved quickly, each standing at the side of the door at the back leaning into the hallway. Trowa cracked the door slightly, peeked through and nodded his head before he rushed in with Quatre behind him. Holding his hat down, hoping Heero was seeing everything, Quatre moved rushing in first with Trowa behind him.

The hallway lay empty but the sound of muffled voices came from above. Quatre looked back at Trowa and, seeing the other already pulling out his gun, started to pull out his own as well from the lace around his thigh. He'd expected to play the part of an innocent lady with her husband who happened to walk into the wrong place at the wrong time. Now, if they were to show up suddenly upstairs after passing through an obviously empty building without even yelling out hello even once, they'd of course look suspicious.

He was surprised he didn't see any traps hidden since their arrival into the building. Were the guys here not expecting anyone to come inside just because it was in a more isolated part of town? He kept moving though, hating how the floor creaked no matter where the supposed couple walked. He expected the guys to come running out shooting guns at them each time he stepped on one of the bad boards. His heart thundered in his chest in anticipation as he licked at his drying lips. The muffled sounds were close and he stopped by the door, Trowa moving the other side instantly.

He looked at Trowa, the other betraying none of his feelings in his blank eyes even as he glanced at the door. He was better at that than Quatre was, even though he tried his best to hide it. He could see bodies lying on the floor through the cracked door but only just barely. He honestly hoped that this cold feeling running through his veins wasn't because of something bad.

Trowa waved a hand to get his attention and when he looked at him he saw the other holding up a hand with three fingers on it. He knew what it meant and nodded his head as he took a deep breath holding his gun up and ready. Trowa nodded his head in return and started the count down with his fingers. Three…Two…One….

Quatre and his partner rushed in quickly, guns held ready to shoot the first thing to move. His eyes darted around quickly, taking into account all the bodies on the floor and looking for someone to be standing up either ready to shoot them or, hopefully, surprised by the sudden entry of the two men.

Aside from the people on the ground, there wasn't anyone else in the room and it just led to more suspicion in Quatre's eyes. But he let the idea go as he rushed over spotting Father Maxwell among the bodies. He was, thankfully, alive as were the rest of them if not shaken a little. Quatre untied the gag first and was about to start untying the older man before his frantic voice stopped him.

"Stop!" Father Maxwell yelled out so suddenly Quatre felt himself jump back. He saw the recognition in the man's eyes but it was quickly clouded over with panic and fear. "They're after him! You have to go save him! Those men! They're after him! They…" He coughed and Quatre sat him up quickly, continuing to work on the restraints as the man spoke. "They know where he is! They've…they've known all along."

Even after Quatre had worked the restraints free he noticed Trowa doing the same to Mother Helen out of his peripheral. He saw Father Maxwell hang his head down and returned his focus to him leaving Trowa and Sister Helen to handle the other children. He could tell that Trowa was listening even though he was working to untie the children whom Sister Helen was trying to calm down.

"We were fools," Father Maxwell was saying looking up at him. "We were complete fools. If we had never begged him to tell us where he stayed…." He looked at Quatre and the young blond didn't think it was possible for a person to look so desperate. Had 02 been back to the church without them knowing? If so, how had he done it? "Please, save him before they get to him."

"We will," Quatre said no doubt already figuring out who it was he was talking about. "Where is he now?"

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Time: 15:30 hours

Heero pulled up the coordinates on his laptop, he and Wufei both looking over the map and picking out their routes quickly before Heero shut the machine down. He headed to the door, only stopping long enough to grab his jean jacket and his motorcycle helmet before he kept going. Wufei did the same, though the jacket he grabbed was a leather one. For the past week and a half that they stayed here, they hadn't used the motorcycles at all.

After all, a group trying to pass themselves off as poor college students shouldn't have the funds to pay for a brand new motorcycle, especially four of them. No, they'd only use them for when the mission was over, and in case of an emergency, like now.

It wasn't long before he found himself flying through the streets swiftly but cautiously. They split up about halfway there, Wufei taking one route while Heero took another. They wanted to avoid OZ finding them if they could. Besides, moving separately would draw less attention to them. Heero didn't take his bike all the way to the building, instead stopping about two blocks away to walk. He wanted to look as casual as possible, even placing a pair of headphones on bopping his head slightly to the nonexistent music. He watched his surroundings with a casual eye opposed to the attentive stare he knew his enemies would be watchful for. He saw Wufei up ahead, kicking down the kickstand on his motorcycle and heading into the coffee shop across from the apartment complex.

Heero didn't even bat an eye at him, making for the apartment as if he had a room there. On the outside, it wasn't the most impressive apartment building nor was it torn down enough to become inhabitable. In fact, for the part of town it was in, it looked fairly decent.

Heero hadn't seen anyone suspicious yet which could be a good sign or a bad sign. Good because it meant no one had shown up to take Duo away yet. But bad because it could mean they'd already done just that and were completely out of reach of the Preventer agents. Either way, he didn't see any suspicious cars or mini vans sitting around or anyone that screamed "OZ" to him.

He'd been so focused on what lay ahead of him, in fact, that he didn't expect to feel someone grab his hand and pull him into the nearby alley. Instinct kicked in as he yanked his hand away and spin with a kick to the air. He didn't expect his leg to be caught midair and looked up seeing a pair of violet eyes right in front of him.

"You…why are you…?"

"Surprised to see me?" Subject 02 said as he grinned at him letting him lower his leg back down to the ground. He could still feel the firm grip on the muscle of his legs. How could such a skinny person be so strong? "You're more muscular than I thought." Duo smirked and flexed his fingers staring at him.

Heero didn't know why his cheeks heated up at that moment but he narrowed his eyes in suspicion. "What are you doing here?"

"As opposed to being in the apartment building?" He grinned at that. "Let's just say I have a little…intuition. And by the way, this isn't the real apartment if you're wondering."

He's been watching us?

No, it was more like he'd been watching the church. He must have seen the exchange that happened or at least knew about it. Cameras? Heero hadn't noticed anything unless he'd missed something which he felt was impossible for him.

"Then you know about Maxwell Church then."

"Yeah, I know about that too," 02 interrupted still looking at him with the most vibrant violet eyes he'd ever seen. Heero was trapped in them even though he wanted to turn away. But then Duo looked away first of his own violation. "I sort of…set that up myself."

"…They're important people to you aren't they? Why would you-"

"I trusted you to be able to save them. That's all." It seemed like there was more to his words, but he'd already turned walking further into the dark alley. He picked up a small laptop case that had somehow gone unnoticed by the Preventer officer.

Heero also hadn't noticed, thanks to not being adjusted to the darkness of the alley at the time, the clothes 02 wore or how his braid was now split into two ponytails. Even though he wore a pair of jeans, the shirt he wore was obviously of a more feminine taste. He wore a jacket as well that served to cover up the more masculine shoulders and the lack of female breast. The way he walked was graceful, natural. How often had he dressed like this? He could really give Quatre some pointers.

02 slid a pair of shades over his eyes and the disguise was complete in every breathtaking way. Even though Heero told himself he could care less, the guy could have been a model if he wanted to. Was it even legal for a guy to be able to look that good?

"Pretend to be my boyfriend," 02 said as casual as breathing air and didn't give Heero the chance to respond as he looped his arm around Heero's tugging him from the alley and out into the light of day. Already out in the open now, it would have been hard to protest. Instead, he gave a brief command for Wufei to return to their hideout and only a quick, "I'll explain later," when the other tried to protest.

Heero sighed as he walked alongside Duo who talked about absolutely nothing of importance. He glanced at him often though, staring at the chubby cheeks and on up to the shade covered eyes that gave nothing away about their color thankfully. He seemed just like a normal, talkative teenage girl. There really didn't seem to be anything special about him otherwise aside for quick wit and sufficient speed. What did OZ want with such an average person?

Heero didn't lead them directly to the bike, instead taking a roundabout route to determine if they were being followed. He even stopped at a few stores to pretend to window shop. Duo was a lot of help in this aspect, getting excited over little things, especially the mouthwatering smell of the cookie shop that Heero had to drag him away from. All in all they arrived in safety at his deposited motorbike.

"Get on," Heero said tossing the helmet to Duo. He didn't wait to see what Duo did as he got onto the bike himself. He was still busy mulling over the mystery that was Duo Maxwell. He was almost certain that wasn't his real name.

"Don't you have an extra helmet?" Duo asked him as he slid onto the bike behind him. Heero looked over his shoulder at him and it was kind of comical how the long ponytails stuck out from the helmet.

"That's the only one I have," Heero responded. He frowned when he saw 02 starting to unhook the helmet to take it off. "Leave it on."

"What?" Duo paused in the middle of taking it off. He sounded a bit startled but that served to amuse Heero just a smudge. Maybe not as much as seeing Quatre's discomfort in wearing drag but it was close enough.

"I said leave it on," he repeated and didn't turn around until he saw the other lower his hands.

"You do realize I don't need to wear this," Duo said leaning over to whisper into his ear. Heero felt the involuntary shiver run through his body at the heat of the other's chest pressed into his back. He also was able to official confirm that yes, Duo was a male. His mind ignored the unusual feel of another human's touch however and instead focused on what Duo said.

The words, "guns don't hurt me," came back to him as he thought about the time back at Maxwell church where he'd pointed the gun at Duo. He didn't know anything about 02, of whether he was a threat to them or a needed source of information. All he knew was that he needed to protect the man until they could get him back to Preventers Headquarter safely.

As the engine to the sleek black motorcycle roared to life, he felt arms going around his waist holding on to him. He had to force his body not to stiffen up as he kicked the kickstand up and revved on the handle starting on a steady return to their temporary hideaway.

TBC….

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I've literally been having fun with this story lately. It's gotten pretty fun and keeps throwing me off track on finishing this other story.


	5. Chapter 5

Pairings: Duo/Heero, Quatre/Trowa

Warnings: possibilities of later violence? supernatural stuff, kinky moments, not sure what all's gonna be in here yet

Author's comment:

Yeah I said I wouldn't put up another update for this until I finished Princely Garbs but x.x seeing as I don't know how like that will be exactly...here's another chapter update for yas. Btw I'm completely in love with this story x.x

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Operation Blank Conspiracy 5

Time: 16:45 hours

Wufei was the first one of the two to return. He felt frustration when he walked through the door seeing that Heero hadn't made it back yet. But then for Heero to tell him to return with a promise of explaining later meant he either found their target, or something bad happened. He was voting on the first option.

Quatre seemed to finally acknowledge Wufei's presence as the black haired male tossed his helmet onto the bed. He could see that the other were had started about putting things away and packing up which meant they were getting ready to move soon. Well he definitely had no complaints about that, he was ready to be done with this mission anyway, and for good reason. The young Maxwell orphan was, literally, a pain in the ass. Could anyone be such a nuisance and get away with it?

"Has Heero contacted you yet?"

"Yeah," Quatre said and smiled at him as if trying to cheer up his foul mood. It didn't work. "He said he has Subject 02 with him." Now Wufei did look at him at those words, lifting a brow as he stared at the blond.

"So he has 02?"

"Yeah."

"Without having to fight him?"

"I…don't really know on that part." Quatre frowned and glanced at Trowa who just seemed amused by the whole thing but didn't say anything as he kept packing. "He said they'd be here in about five minutes and to pack up everything as quickly as possible."

"So we're heading out to transport then," Wufei stated checking the gun he'd pulled out one of his bags before tossing it on the bed. "Shouldn't take us more than three days to get there at most."

"Yeah…but…"

"But what?"

"…How did he get 02 to come here?"

"Ask leader boy when he comes back." He continued on, packing away more stuff in his duffle bag such as maps, weapons, clothes, and other necessary miscellaneous things. There were clothes there for disguises, more earpieces for communication and even a sniper rifle leaning up against the side of the bed for if they had to deal with any assassinations. However, he at least didn't need to use half the stuff he brought with him, thank god.

Five minutes went by quickly and for the most part unnoticed until the door creaked open slowly. The small noise enough to alert the three boys that someone was there. When Wufei looked up he saw Heero standing there, somehow looking annoyed without even trying. Any other time he would have continued on with his task but…the person that was standing behind Heero.

"…Is that a girl?" Wufei asked frowning.

"02's a girl?" Quatre asked at about the same time. Well at least he wasn't the only one confused.

Before Heero even had a moment to open his mouth, their target stepped forward smiling and holding the helmet under their arm.

"Greetings," they said. The sound of the voice was high pitched and somehow perfectly feminine. Quatre looked surprised and even Heero was staring at the person like they were insane. Wufei didn't exactly get it himself maybe because he hadn't been one of the ones to actually hear the voice.

"Are you sure this is the right person?" Quatre asked eyes flickering to Heero.

"It is." And that was all Heero left it at as he stared at 02, more like glaring in Wufei's opinion.

"…A woman?" Wufei asked lifting a brow.

"No."

"Yes." Heero and 02 looked at each other, one out of amusement while the other with frustration.

Rolling his eyes, Heero stepped forward. "02 is-"

"A woman," 02 said and looked over at Heero with such a sly look, Heero looked ready to smack them. "And I can prove it if you want." 02 unzipped the jacket and lifted the shirt up enough that Wufei was able to see the bottom part of a bra, which made Wufei instantly turn red.

"N-No!" Quatre said quickly averting his eyes, blushing. "No, I believe you."

Heero just rolled his eyes and grabbed the bottom of the shirt lifting it all the way.

"Argh! ….Wait…he's…" Wufei glared at the con artist who was obviously flat…very flat.

"Well sorry if it's not as big as you were hoping," 02 said rolling their eyes.

"It's a guy," Heero said tugging the shirt down in place again. "He's been in disguise since finding out that OZ is after him."

"After that motorcycle ride, I guess you would know about me being a guy wouldn't you?" And Wufei was NOT going to ask why it looked like Heero's cheeks reddened a bit. "By the way, name's Duo Maxwell if you haven't figured that much out yet."

"Hn…" Heero ignored him as he looked around the room at his crew. "How much do we have left to pack up?"

"Everything's good, Zero," Quatre said before looking back at the laptop. "I'm just finishing letting HQ know we're heading to the pickup spot."

Heero nodded his head before he turned grabbing the violet eyed boy's wrist. "You're coming with us."

"Whoa," Duo said snatching his hand back. "I didn't make an agreement to that."

Heero frowned at that staring at him. "You're under our protection now."

"Heh." Duo stared at him before he started flat out laughing. "Sorry, don't see where you got that from." He smirked at the look on Heero's face. "I just wanted to meet all the people here. By the way, Zero, what's your real name?"

"…depends on when you decide to tell your real name." Duo just kept on grinning. Everything seemed to be a joke to him and it drove Wufei nuts. Why did they have to deal with such an annoying imbecile?

"Regardless," Heero continued, "names or not, you're still coming with us." Heero made to reached for Duo's hand again but the other pulled it back naturally.

"I don't think so," Duo said laughing slightly as he turned staring around the room. "Like I said, I don't remember ever saying I would go with you."

"But 02! I mean Duo…" Quatre turned in the computer chair. "If you don't go, OZ will only keep coming after you. You can't keep running forever."

"Uh…excuse me but," Duo held up a finger to stop him staring at him. Even though he was smiling, his eyes seemed to be saying a different story and, dare Wufei say it? It looked dangerous. "I've been running and hiding for seven years now. I think I can handle myself."

"Then explain to us how OZ found out about Maxwell church?" Wufei asked him, walking up to him and pointing a finger in his face. This kid was seriously getting on his last nerve. "How did they learn what apartment you were staying in? What if they had blew up that whole apartment building or killed those people in the church just to get to you? What then, huh? HUH?!"

"Shenlong, stand down!" Heero yelled out. Wufei looked up at their leader, glaring but he bit his pride and clenched his jaw stepping back if not to glare at Duo more.

"…Regardless, I'm not leaving. I won't let Father Maxwell and Sister Helen stay in danger because of me." Dare Wufei believe that the man looked sincere when he said it? It was obviously in his eyes, he'd hit a sore spot with those words about the people at Maxwell church being killed. So they were important to him, huh?

"Then let us help you," Quatre tried again, finally getting up and walking over to 02 and reaching down holding Duo's hand with both of his. The kid was good with this kind of stuff, the whole using emotion to get in touch with another's feelings. He could talk a lion out of eating an antelope if he wanted to.

"If you come with us then we can protect them."

"…A bribe huh?" Duo chuckled, but it didn't have the warmth it had earlier. It sounded eerie and Wufei found himself going on guard at the sound. He wasn't the only one either. Even Heero was holding his hand near his vest where he kept his gun. "If I go with you, you'll protected Father Maxwell and the others right?"

"We'll transport them to a safer location where they will be under full protection." Duo didn't look like he liked that idea much, gripping the helmet under his arm so hard that for a moment Wufei was sure he heard the shield shatter. Nah, that wasn't possible though. No one was that strong.

Still, it kept him on guard against this mysterious male that they really didn't know anything about. Duo closed his eyes, taking deep breathes before finally the hand loosened on the shield and he looked up, directly at Heero.

"Fine," he said breathing out before sitting the helmet down and resting his hands behind his head. "But if I find out that something happened to any of them while under your protection…." He left it at that, his darkened eyes going around the room like a wild tiger being held up in cage with his prey. But then the eerie feel went away as he smiled again and kneeled down behind the shield. "So what's our destination?"

"You'll find out when you get there."

Duo rocked back on his heels looking up at Heero as he did. "However since I'm making this deal with you, I have a request of my own." Heero stared down at him, frowning but nodding his head for him to continue. "I'd like to wait on leaving until I'm certain the people of Maxwell Church are safely on their way."

"What?!" Wufei glared at him. "We can't stay here to wait on tha-"

"Deal."

"Zero!"

"If it gets him to cooperate with us then we'll do it," Heero said simply looking at Wufei before looking at Quatre. "Call HQ and tell them the situation." Quatre nodded and turned back to the computer typing away quickly.

Wufei stood there flabbergasted for a moment before he marched in front of Heero and lean up whispering quickly, heatedly. "This is stupid. If we stay here any longer, OZ is going to pick up on it and come after us and 02."

"And if we don't give him what he wants, 02 is going to disappear on us before we even have a chance to register what happened." Heero stared at him hard, daring him to say otherwise. "And I doubt he'll make himself known again."

"Then what? We just stay here and wait on OZ to come pick us up?"

"We'll move to another location temporarily until we get word of the transport arriving."

"And where exactly are we going to go in this beat up colony."

"I have a place we can crash at for a little while." Both males jumped back at the sudden intrusion, the chubby cheeked male standing right beside them and looking innocent despite that Wufei knew he wasn't. How had he snuck up on them so quietly without either of them noticing? It made Wufei stare at him suspiciously.

"Where at?" Heero asked not even fazed.

"At my friend's apartment," Duo said not missing a beat as he grinned at them. "She's out of town for a while on a business trip but it's a pretty safe place. Trust me, I made it that way."

"Zero," Wufei said hurriedly. "We can't trust this person. Even though we were charged with protecting him, we still don't know his true affiliation with OZ."

"I doubt he's working with OZ if OZ is the one trying to catch him." Heero turned to Duo, staring at him for a moment before he turned around and headed to his bed for his stuff. "However, I'll go with 02 first to make sure it is sufficient for our needs before we move everything."

"Aw you just want to bang me before 'mom' gets home." Heero ignored him and this time Wufei did as well as he sighed and looked down at his stuff.

"Fine…if there's any trouble, just buzz and we'll come running right away." Heero nodded to that, grabbing up his important items before he turned walking over to Duo again. "Let's go," he said and the braided boy only grinned and nodded before grabbing up the helmet and leading the way out. Wufei watched them, watched the twin braids of hair going down the boys back and frowned. This was a big mistake, he just knew it.

"Well…what do you two think?" Wufei asked looking at the other two in the room. To Trowa, who'd been quiet this whole time, and to Quatre who was now finishing up typing to HQ and was turning to look at them.

"I think it's interesting," Trowa said. When Wufei stared at him he just shrugged his shoulders in amusement but said nothing else. Bastard.

"I think Trowa means that it's rare to get Heero get like this." Wufei blinked. Well that made little sense even if it was true. "To trust someone like this," Quatre amended at Wufei's confusion. And that was true. Heero didn't trust people easily, not unless he felt they were even footing with him or that he could work with them. For Duo to be trusted so easily, he must have done something to gain Heero's approval. But what?

"Anyway, you two stay here. I'll go down to the Maxwell Church and talk to Father Maxwell. It might be a good idea to let him know what's going on. Or I can at least warn him so he's not panicking when the Preventers suddenly surround them and tell them they're leaving."

"That is a good idea," Trowa said looking over at him. "You can let him know Duo's ok too."

"Alright." Quatre smiled at him. "You guys let me know if Heero calls."

"We will," Wufei said grunting and falling on his bed resting an arm behind his head as he closed his eyes. "Now get going so you can hurry back."

"Ok. See you guys soon." Wufei heard the door open and close, all in the span of a few seconds. Wufei was about to get a small nap before Trowa distracted him. He opened his eyes glancing over at him.

"What'd you say?"

"I said I get the feeling all of this is going to get messy," Trowa said. He was busy typing on his own laptop though what he was working on, Wufei couldn't see around his pointy hair. The other wasn't looking at him, back mostly facing him.

"…What makes you say that?"

"…Just a feeling," Trowa said shrugging. He started typing again and Wufei closed his eyes again, thinking about those words when the sound of the keys being hit lulled him to sleep.

TBC…..

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Hehe...I love Wufei. Actually I love them all D: Even if I don't officially know where this story is going.


	6. Chapter 6

Pairings: Duo/Heero, Quatre/Trowa

Warnings: possibilities of later violence? supernatural stuff, kinky moments, not sure what all's gonna be in here yet

Author's comment: And yet another update D:

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Operation Blank Conspiracy 06

Time: 17:20 hours

Duo sat behind him again, a strange comfort to his back. He couldn't explain why he enjoyed the feeling of warmth against him but he found he didn't complain about it either. The other guided the way by using tightening leg muscles to signal which way Heero needed to turn. It worked effectively for the two of them, as if it were customary for them to ride like this. It also helped in the case of someone following them to not point out which direction they were planning on taking.

In fact, it went so smoothly that Heero didn't even realize they were there until he felt the brush of lips against his ear whispering the word "stop" with barely a breath. He stopped the motorcycle into one of the parking spots before reaching up to brush at his ear irritably. The other laughed behind him and Heero looked back to see that he had already taken the helmet off. Despite the crack in the shield, Heero still told him to wear it.

He knew the shied had been cracked by the boy even though he didn't admit to it out loud. The other had mentioned something about a rock, but unless it was a pretty big rock, there was no way it'd leave a crack that big, and definitely not while leaving from their safe house down to the hidden motorbike.

"Come on," Duo said after he'd sat the helmet down. "Follow me if you don't want to be left behind." And really, how could a guy walk like that and not draw attention? Hips should not be allowed to move that way. But there was something else about Duo's walk. The fact that he walked quietly, as quietly as Heero could when he was on a mission. And he wasn't even trying that Heero could tell. The boy was a natural at staying silent even though his mouth said otherwise back at the safe house. Nothing seemed disturbed by his steps and Heero couldn't help but to follow behind him in the same way.

The two of them moved quietly down the hallway the apartment room was located on, even though Duo talked loudly the whole time. In fact, the only time he shut up was when he pulled out the key to unlock the door. But once the door was open, he was talking again. Whether it was about anything or not, Heero wasn't sure. The boy's voice was mesmerizing and it amused Heero to no end. This guy was a mystery, one that he really wanted to figure out. There was so much about him Heero didn't know, that probably no one knew. And he wasn't just talking about what OZ might have done to him either.

"So," Duo said turning around as Heero stepped inside," this is my friend's place. It's not bad, huh?" Heero turned closing the door before turning around taking in the whole place. He didn't give an answer, nodding more than a brief nod. So this was the place that 02 had been hiding at all this time.

It honestly juts looked like a regular apartment, a girl's apartment even. So his friend was a girl, huh? It was well furnished. A couch sat in the middle of the room along with a recliner, both of which looked very comfortable at that moment. There were miscellaneous pictures on the walls, things like angels and Greek like art. But there were no personal pictures of friends or families, which Heero found a little odd.

"Yeah, I told her it might be best not to put those kinds of pictures up," Duo said stopping beside him and glancing at him. "For her safety, of course."

"Hn." Heero nodded though he found himself staring at Duo out the corner of his eye. How had the other known what he'd been thinking?

"So this is where you were staying?"

"Yep," Duo sat his laptop bag down and pulled out the laptop as he set it down on the coffee table and powered it up. "This is where I go if I think OZ might be on to me. When that happens, I always send Hilde away on a 'business trip' so she can't get hurt."

"Hilde?"

"Yeah," Duo smiled at the name and turned around heading into the kitchen as the laptop was firing up with the blaringly loud welcome music. "My friend's current name." Heero heard the hiss of two sodas being opened up before the double braided male was heading back into the living room. He handed Heero one of the drinks which Heero took but didn't drink from as he continued watching 02.

The other took a couple of sips before sitting the drink down and flopping down on the couch in front of the laptop. "You can sit down you know," Duo said looking up at Heero and grinning. "You're my guest right now after all." Heero grunted but he followed his instructions and took a seat on the couch, to keep an eye on him he told himself.

Duo smirked at that but returned his attention to the laptop, typing on the keyboard for a couple of minutes before he turned the laptop around to face Heero. "Here. Take a look at this."

He did…and what he saw really impressed him. "Cameras?"

"Yep."

"…This many?" Heero pulled the laptop over to him flipping through the different video feeds. There were so many places the cameras were planted, so many places that for a moment he wondered if all of L2 were on here. They weren't placed just anywhere either, the places were very strategic getting the very best angles while not being noticed at all by people.

"Yeah. I use all of them. These are the ones for Maxwell Church."

"There's got to be at least ten, no fifteen feeds just for this church alone."

"Seventeen to be exact."

Heero looked over at him with a look of shock, a look that rarely ever appeared on his face. "There's no way you can view these all at the same time."

"Well not at the same time of course." Duo grinned as he leaned back on the couch and slipped his shoes off. "Right now, I'm only using maybe seven of them for immediate reasons. And the ones for the apartment, I always keep up."

"…."

"Here let me show you this one." Duo took the monitor again, clicking around a moment before turning it around again. Heero leaned in then frowned and looked up at Duo with a piercing gaze. "…This is the safe house."

"Yep. The very one we just left."

"How did you…?"

"Looks like Wuffie's all tuckered out now," Duo said pointing to the feed of Wufei lying on his back.

"…Wuffie?"

"Yeah. I'm calling him that since he wants to act like a mean ole dog. That's his name from now on. Haven't come up with one for Trowa and Quatre yet. Or you either, Heero." He said the name on purpose.

"How do you know our names? How did you even get this-"

"Because I'm OZ's little experiment," Duo said yawning and leaning over resting his head on Heero's lap and looking up at him smirking. "I can do a lot of things. I was trained to do a lot of things, whether I wanted to or not."

"Hmm…." Heero frowned, both at the sudden weigh in his lap and the words Duo just said to him. So it was true. OZ was experimenting on him. But this didn't explain what exactly they did to him. "What sort of things did OZ train you to do?"

"Hmm, later." Duo closed his eyes looking far too content to make Heero's lap into his personal pillow. "Aren't you supposed to be calling your friends to come here now?"

"I told them I'd call them once I determined this was a safe place."

Duo opened his eyes again staring up at him and really did he have to have such beautiful indigo eyes? "So spending the night, just you and me huh?" Duo laughed at that but he didn't move away, instead turning his body to the side and nuzzling his nose into Heero's shirt giving a content sigh. "You smell pretty good. I don't think I have any complaints about that."

Heero frowned staring down at him and literally tempted to push the other onto the floor even though his cheeks had reddened at the words. "Are you going to tell me about OZ?" The other didn't say anything except to sigh softly and lean closer to him. He was asleep. Heero hadn't been sure it was true at first but after five minutes of silence where the boy said nothing nor replied to anything said, he knew he was deep asleep. He let his fingers slide along one of the twin braids draped over his side. The hair was soft like silk and gentle under his fingers. The other really did take care of his hair.

Duo didn't protest the action. Instead he smiled in his sleep and sighed deeply. Heero let his fingers do what they wanted a moment longer before he looked over at the open laptop. He glanced down at the male again, confirming he was still sleeping before he reached over pulling the laptop closer. He could see that Quatre was back now and that they were taking turns setting up a watch. They always set up watches when they were out on missions. There was no telling when someone might find their hide out and try to invade during their most vulnerable times.

But Heero was curious about more things now. He flipped through a few of the feeds, catching a few familiar places such as the coffee shop that Wufei went into earlier or the alleyway of homeless people that Heero had lost 02 at during their last encounter. But other than that, there were no places that resembled OZ buildings. For 02 to be this good, he was surprised by that. His best thing would be keeping watch over OZ, but then maybe he avoided those places so he wouldn't be caught.

After a while it was just getting tedious and Heero was about to text Quatre to come when something caught his eye. There was a folder on the desktop called "My Happy Place." Other than the basic computer programs and the cheesy 'Hello Kitty' wallpaper in the background, this folder stood out the most to him. He glanced down at Duo to make sure he was still sleeping before he clicked into the folder.

There were several word documents inside, each one labeled with a date and the phrase, 'Dear Diary.' Ah…so this was 02's diary then. If it was a diary, then that meant he'd be able to get some information out of it. On the other hand…it was a diary, something considered private to the owner. But Heero didn't care about personal items since he had none himself.

Still Heero hesitated, but his hesitation didn't last long as he clicked on one of the latest entries in the diary folder. A block popped up flashing in front of him demanding the entry of a password. It intrigued him. Was the password there to keep people from reading his private matters on his personal laptop? Was it even a diary at all or was it information and secrets that involved OZ? Could there be secret plans inside that belonged to OZ that Duo might have stolen from them when he disappeared? It could explain why OZ was chasing after him…at least partly.

"Mmm." The other moved slightly and Heero glanced down at him before clicking the cancel button quickly. He wouldn't be able to attempt hacking into it here, not right now. The other could wake up at any moment. He didn't want to take his chances on 02 running away from them. As long as 02 was going along with them, he'd have plenty of time to crack the code for this.

Pulling out his phone, he sent a quick text to the others to let them know where he was and for them to bring everything before he put his cell phone away. It wasn't just any phone though. It responded only to his commands and was set to destroy all information on it should someone that was not him try to use it without the proper knowledge. It was also made so that if anyone intercepted his messages, they would encrypt themselves with hard to read codes. It would take ages to figure out what he really meant.

The braided male shifted moving again drawing Heero's attention to him once more. He seemed pretty comfortable using Heero's lap as a pillow. And for some reason Heero didn't give out a complaint to the weight. He told himself it was because the guy actually didn't seem so bad while he was sleeping. He looked well…not so annoying.

The other slept on and Heero just leaned back brushing his fingers over Duo's hair as he closed his eyes just to rest them for a moment.

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The knock at the door jolted Heero awake. He started to get up but the weight was still on his lap. He rubbed at his eyes trying to figure out exactly when he'd fallen asleep. He was supposed to be on watch and waiting for the others to come. Another knock at the door woke the braided boy up whom, after sitting up like a half asleep drunken man, stretched and climbed up off the couch.

"I'm coming, I'm coming. Keep your pants on." He started towards the door but Heero reached out quickly grabbing his hand and stopping him in place. Duo paused and looked back at him, actually looking surprised to see him there. Had he forgotten that Heero was there after using him as a pillow for, Christ had it really been close to an hour?

"Stay put," Heero said letting his hand go and standing to his feet. The other didn't say anything and just let Heero do his thing as the cobalt eyed male walked towards the door. He pulled out his gun pressing up against the side of the door.

"Zero, are you in there?" Heero blinked recognizing the voice before putting his gun away. You could never be too safe when it came to knocks at the door, whether you knew someone was coming or not. Heero reached out opening the door permitting entry to Quatre along with the other two members of the Preventers. "Sorry we're a little late, we came as fast as we could. Heavy Arms decided we should stop and get some pizza, in case you guys were hungry."

"Wow, Quatre, you're definitely a life saver!" Duo walked over to him throwing his arm around his shoulder as if they were the best of friends, despite the startled look on Quatre's face. "Boring ole Heero here didn't even bother to see if I was hungry." Duo stuck his tongue out at Heero but he ignored it, instead focusing on Quatre.

"Um…he knows my…h-how do you know my name?" Quatre asked him looking at him before his eyes flickered over to Heero questioningly.

"02 has been spying on us for a while now." Heero walked over to Duo's laptop turning it around so that Quatre and the others could see the feed for themselves. "Seems like he's been pretty busy."

"What the…how the hell did he manage that?!" Wufei glared at Duo who just smirked and walked away heading to the kitchen.

"Bad Wuffie. Sit. No treats for you if you keep acting up like this."

"Why you -"

"Who wants a soda?" Duo peeked his head out the kitchen waggling around a can of Coke. He didn't actually wait for answers before he ducked back into the kitchen.

Three pair of eyes went from staring at the kitchen to staring at Heero.

"…Does HQ know about this at all?" Quatre asked walking over to Heero and frowning.

"They don't."

"And you're just letting him walk around and do whatever the hell he wants," Wufei grumbled out glaring at him. "Even if it means top secret information could seep out thanks to his snooping."

"Because we have no choice," Heero said glaring at Wufei hard enough that the other actually looked away from him. "If we don't keep him happy then he'll run away. And you know what happens then. We'll spend months, even years looking for him and never finding him. I'd rather he stay here in my sights than running loose for OZ to get ahold of."

Wufei opened his mouth to protest but Duo came back into the room, juggling five sodas, one on top of the other in his hand. "Sorry, you guys can keep on talking about me if you want. I'm used to it." He smirked. Heero knew what he was talking about. The times they'd talked about how to capture him several times in the safe house. "Come on, what's with the rough atmosphere? Let's get to eating the chow."

"Ah r-right." Quatre glanced Heero's way before he took the pizza walking over to Duo cautiously. 02 just stood there, that weird grin on his lips as he stared around the room before he sat the drinks down and flopped down on the couch.

"Man this just smells good," Duo sniffed at the air, sitting up when the pizza box was placed onto the table next to the laptop. He opened it up taking a slice out. "So how often are you forced to wear drag, Quatre?"

"W-What?" Quatre looked like all the color drained from his cheeks even though Trowa walked over to sit in the reclining, somehow looking like he was smirking without actually smirking. "H-How did you-"

"Cameras, remember?" He pointed to the laptop as he took a bite out of the pizza. "Mmmm! This is awesome! You guys are the best! Well, everyone except Wuffie."

"Why you..." Wufei stepped forward looking ready to fight but one look from Heero made him settle down as he folded his arms glaring. These two were already getting off to a rough started. But if Heero had to play the part of the person that put the fire's out, then he would.

"Yeah, that's right, heel. Like a good dog." Wufei clenched his hands at his sides before he turned around heading to the door.

"I'm going out on patrol," Wufei said opening the door. "Hopefully this goes by quickly so we can get that little pest out of our hair." He went out completely missing Duo sticking his tongue out at him and crossing his eyes.

"Stop that," Heero said glaring at Duo.

"What?" Duo looked at him, the perfect picture of innocence even though he wasn't. "He started it."

"And I'm finishing it," Heero said. "He's one of the people sent here to protect you. I won't tolerate you treating him in that manner."

"Oh yeah?" Duo swallowed the pizza down, giving him a look. "And what are you going to do if I don't stop?"

"Something you won't like," Heero glared at him hard and for the first time since being around the guy he actually saw Duo wilt and glance away from him. It surprised him actually to see it happen. He'd seen danger in the guy's eyes before when they'd talked about moving the people of Maxwell Church to a safer place. So he was surprised that he didn't receive that kind of look again.

"Fine. Party Pooper," Duo leaned back on the couch pouting as he continued to eat his pizza. The other two looked at each other before finally getting around to getting some of the pizza. The whole area was quiet, what with Quatre nervously watching Duo, Trowa being himself, and Duo electing to ignore them all because he was in a pouty mood. But Heero had no complaints.

He pulled out his own laptop to get to work on his reports, letting whatever happened around him happen as long as it posed no danger. By the time Wufei returned, Duo had left them to go to bed saying he'd be more 'comfortable' on a real cushion. Trowa and Quatre had both taken to going to sleep since Heero told them he'd keep the watch for now. And it was only until Wufei had returned that Heero had given over watch duty to the young Chinese male in favor of getting his much needed sleep.

He left the other three to the living room as he went to the back. Pushing the door open, he was actually relieved to see that Duo was lying there asleep on the bed. He wouldn't lie and say he wasn't surprised the other hadn't slipped out through the window. But it gave him a better impression of the male to see he didn't run away. He walked into the room looking down at him for a moment before he sat down on the floor leaning his back against the side of the bed.

If Heero had looked back at that moment, he'd have noticed the fact that Duo was wide awake and staring at the back of his head with a pretty somber expression. But he didn't look back. He let himself be claimed by sleep, easily able to go to sleep because his body demanded it.

TBC…

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Lol yeah I still totally am in love with this story so far. I hope you all enjoyed reading it.


	7. Chapter 7

Pairings: Duo/Heero, Quatre/Trowa

Warnings: possibilities of later violence? supernatural stuff, kinky moments, not sure what all's gonna be in here yet

Author's comment: Fun chapter is fun.

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Operation Blank Conspiracy 07

Time: 10:00 hours (six days later)

Duo sat back on his heels crouched down in front of the sleeping male. He was, literally, inspecting the details of the Preventer's face. He hated to say it but the guy just felt…familiar to him. He'd only thought it vaguely before but now, seeing this sleeping face up close for the first time, he felt like he'd met Heero before. Maybe back when they were children though he couldn't figure that one out himself.

He didn't remember ever being a child. He'd always been running, stealing to survive. He was an expert when it came to alleys, hidden niches, and sewers. L2 was and had always been home, as much as he sometimes hated to admit to that. He'd lived on L2 a long time ago before he'd been kidnapped and used for experiments. He'd been with another person then, someone else that had been in the same boat as him.

Duo shook his head quickly at the thought. He didn't want to think about that, not right now. As long as he didn't think about it, then he didn't have to worry about the pain he'd feel from it. Instead he smiled tilting his head to the side debating harassing Heero into waking up. He knew the other would respond. He was a soldier after all. But that didn't make it any less of a fun idea. The problem was what to do that wouldn't involve him getting killed…even though he doubted very much could kill him.

And then he'd thought about it what he wanted to do. He'd already put his chestnut hair into a single braid again. Grabbing the braid he took the end of it, licking his lips as he slowly moved it forward towards Heero's nose. Man, he really wished he had remembered to by some whipped cream, this would have been perfect. He was just about to brush it against the tip of Heero's nose before a hand came up clamping around his wrist. Pretty blue eyes opened up to look at him and if Duo weren't wide awake and in his right mind, he would have swallowed at how sexy those eyes were.

"What are you doing?" Heero's voice sounded husky just like any person that just wakes up. But whereas most people sounded like they were going to turn into frogs or something, Heero's voice just sounded…hot. He could get used to this.

"Playing," Duo replied moving so he was sitting cross-legged on the ground. "What are you doing?"

"Sleeping…until you decided to be a pest." Heero grunted reaching up and rubbing his eyes with his fingers. Based on the feeds Duo had been watching in the past, this was the longest he'd ever seen the male sleep. It was already ten o' clock, for Christ's sake. He'd slept well over the usual six hour period which was unnatural for this guy. "What are the others doing?"

"Quatre's checking out the videos on my laptop. I think he's still a little nervous around me. Poor kid."

"Hn." Heero gave him a look as if he expected to hear more. But it wasn't like Duo could help it that guy was so freaked out around him. He'd already tricked him by saying he was a girl. He wouldn't call it a lie though seeing as how he was really supposed to be playing as a girl at the time. Then Heero had to go and expose his goodies, that jerk. Well it had been fun anyways.

"Wuffie…" At the look Heero sent his way, Duo rolled his eyes giving exasperated sigh. "WuFEI," he corrected, "went out to gather supplies or something. At least that's what he told the other two. And Trowa's just being antisocial and ignoring me."

"So now you're bored."

"Well duh!" Duo fell back on the carpeted floor, not caring as he put his bare feet in Heero's lap. "With you guys boarding me up like this, of course I'm going insane. You won't even let me leave the apartment."

"Because you're in danger."

"It's been six days now! I want to leaveeeeeeeee!" He whined kicking his foot against the brunet's leg knowing he was probably annoying him but not caring a lick. "I want to breathe some fresh air, not stay inside smelling stinky feet all day."

"Go open a window then," Heero grumped as he pushed the feet from his legs and got up starting to stretch his muscles. Duo didn't dare say he didn't stare either. He looked delicious and was probably the only reason Duo was going along with this "protection deal."

"Yesterday you said that transport should be coming tomorrow to pick up everyone from Maxwell Church, right?"

"Yeah." Heero reached down and pulled his shirt up and off his head without so much as a warning. Despite finding him to be a pretty hot guy, Duo still found himself swallowing and glancing away when it happened. "If it comes on time, then we'll leave tomorrow to get to transit." Duo could hear the sound of the zipper to Heero's jeans sliding down before he blushed.

"Yeah well, hopefully, it comes quickly," Duo said keeping his head down before he turned heading out of the room. Sexy jerk. He was starting to bet Heero was doing this on purpose, especially since for the past few days it yielded the same results of Duo running away with his tail between his legs. What could he say? Despite his personality, he still held a lot of his innocence. Sure, he teased the others saying he was going to bang this person or that and how much he liked large packages but when it came down to the feel of things he was clueless.

He'd never had a relationship before, with a woman or a man. He didn't know the first thing about dating or about sex except for what online forums told him. And dare he admit he didn't even look at porn sites. That's what happens when you grow up raised in a church…well for the most part. So…to make a short story even shorter, he liked how sexy Heero looked, but he didn't want to see him naked. And because Heero probably knew he was uncomfortable with it, he purposely started undressing to get Duo out of his hair.

And that's why Duo called him a jerk. A sexy jerk, but still a jerk. He was starting to get really restless. He was starting to break down and he knew it. He knew it because Wuffie was starting to smirk at him more as if waiting for him to have a mental break down. And if he had to stay in this house one more day he would. Damn be his promise to go with these guys, he was going to escape and get some fresh air rather they liked it or not.

"IQ-mannnn," Duo flopped down on the couch next to a startled Quatre pouting at him and doing his best to look bored out of his mind…that part wasn't hard. "Play some cards with me or something. I can't do this anymore! I'm bored!"

"I um…a-actually I'm busy at the moment," Quatre said sliding down a little away from him. "Why don't you ask Trowa if he wants to?" And he actually smiled.

"Because he's boring, doesn't talk, and sort of freaks me out," Duo said glancing over at the male that was actually staring at him over his own laptop. Dare Duo say he looked like he was smirking even though it wasn't apparent on his lips at all?

"He's not boring. You just have to get to know him."

"How come you won't let me get to know you?" Duo poked his lips out. He was serious, he really wanted to make a friend somewhere in this group. And Quatre just looked like the easiest to be friends with. "I don't bite."

"Eh it's just well…because I'm busy right now. We have a lot that needs to get done before transport shows up tomorrow."

"Then let Trowa do that boring stuff and play a game with me."

"Sorry, but this something only I can handle." And Quatre actually looked apologetic about that. "This is just my specialty."

"Well…Trowa's smart too. He should be able to do it." Duo actually tugged on his braid in frustration.

"I'm in a different division than Quatre," Trowa said putting his laptop to the side and lifted one leg to cross over the other as he leaned back in the recliner. "Quatre's from Division 2. Wufei and I are in Division 3. We specialize in completely different things."

"…Division what now?" Duo blinked and leaned forward on the couch, ignoring Quatre in favor of this new information. He rarely ever got to hear anything about how the Preventers operated.

"Trowa," Quatre said the name like a warning but Trowa just shook his head holding his hand up to him.

"It's fine. It's not like there's any secret to it. It's just like any other Organization." Trowa looked at Duo again green eye holding the braided male's attention more than it had these past six days. "I can't tell you who runs Division 3 but our job focuses on espionage and infiltration." Trowa actually smiled at the confused look on Duo's face. "Basically, we sneak in and hide out among the ranks of our enemies. We're spies."

"Ooooh." Duo nodded his understanding. "So do you guys you know…assassinate and stuff?"

"Sometimes but it's rare. We're normally used to gather information. Rarely do we ever sneak in to assassinate, though if things get messy we sometimes have to." His eyes seemed out of focus for a moment as he frowned. "Of course if you get caught, your best bet is suicide."

"…Division 2 handles intelligence." Quatre glanced over at him as he spoke before looking back down at his laptop continuing to type. "We handle the hacking and research. We also control all of the Preventers mainframe equipment. We're the ones that learned about your existence." He stopped then looking over at Duo and smiling at him. "In a way, you can say we're the head of the operation."

"Wow." Duo was genuinely impressed with the information he was hearing. "I had no idea you guys had so much stuff going on. So how many divisions do you guys have?" He was tugging on his braid now not feeling so bored anymore. Finally something to talk about, even if it was out of his league.

"Just three," Trowa said glancing down at his computer again. "Division 1 is the more elite group and the hardest one to get into." Trowa looked over at him catching his eyes again. "Heero's the only one in that division from our group."

"It's a…small group, grown smaller now because of people either retiring, being injured in action, or dying." Quatre's blue eyes saddened suddenly. It made Duo frown. "We recently lost another one, a little before we came on this mission."

"The Preventers took a big blow from it too considering…." Trowa let the words die there before he stood up pulling his phone out. "I'll call Wufei and see if he can pick us up some Chinese."

Quatre laughed at that. "You know what he's going to say if you tell him that." And Quatre's face changed as he mimicked the grumpy Preventer's facial expressions. "Idiots! Just because I'm Chinese doesn't mean I like eating Chinese food!" Duo and Quatre looked at each other after that before the two of them burst out laughing.

"HAHAHA! He…you…wow, ahaha! That's perfect, Q!" Duo fell back with laughter, holding his stomach as tears came to his eyes. Really, these guys were amazing!

"What's going on in here?" Three pairs of eyes looked up to see their leader standing in the corridor looking around with a hard expression. He'd obviously just taken a shower, evident from not just the new clothes but the wet hair as well. It made Duo swallow and look away again. Damn Asians, why did they have to be so sexy?

"Sorry Heero," Quatre said still laughing at the joke. "We were just calling Wufei up to tell him to bring back some Chinese."

"Hn." Heero looked at them before the smirk suddenly appeared on his face. Damn it, why did he look so amazing! "Tell him to pick up some cheese wontons too." He was obviously in on the joke because Quatre just started giggling like crazy. It made Duo wonder if there was more to this inside joke than he'd thought.

"Couple of years back Wufei had to infiltrate a base as part of a Chinese delivery service," Quatre explained to him, catching his breath. "He had to play the part of a stereotypical, Chinese male with bad English and well…he wasn't happy with the act, that's for sure."

"But it got us what we needed," Heero said still smirking, "even if it did make him sound like a complete idiot."

"Guys, quiet. I'm calling Wufei up now." Trowa held the phone to his mouth and pushed the button so it was on speaker.

"What do you want?" Wufei answered the phone sounding more than a little irritated.

"Are you on your way back now?"

"…Yeah. I'm about five minutes away now…why?" He sounded suspicious. But who could blame him? Yet all Duo could do was smirk and wait.

"Yeah…I want to put in an order for some Chinese food. Also we'd like some cheese wontons as well. Thanks."

"You...-! Gah! Just because I'm Chinese doesn't mean I like eating Chinese food!" He hung up the phone leaving the room in complete silence before Duo and Quatre burst out laughing again. Even Trowa was chuckling slightly. Heero just stood there but he had the most amused look on his face. When he looked at Duo's face, the braided one felt like he could die peacefully with that expression.

Hey, he might not have gotten to go outside today, but at least he'd gotten to have a little fun and get the others to open up to him. Maybe this little 'staying with the Preventers' trip wouldn't be so bad after all.

TBC….

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Poor Wufei. Lol I gotta abuse him a little bit at least.


	8. Chapter 8

Pairings: Duo/Heero, Quatre/Trowa

Warnings: possibilities of later violence? supernatural stuff, kinky moments, not sure what all's gonna be in here yet

Author's comment: Sorry for such a long delay on getting this one out. x.x For having been done a while, I'm only just now getting the chance to upload it. By the way, sinus infections suck and so do random family visits at the same time. :grunts: Anyways, here's hoping you enjoy this chapter.

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Operation Blank Conspiracy 8

Time: 0600 hours (The following morning)

"Duo…" The voice came out with a tone of warning to it when Heero said the name. He saw the braided boy deflate beside him, seeming to pout as he stared down towards the abandoned airfield from their vantage point. They were sitting in in the control tower which was high enough to be able to see the airfield easily. It hadn't been hard to find an empty one, not on the poor colony of L2 where business seemed rare. The others had gone on ahead; all except for Trowa who was down there with Father Maxwell right now, making sure everything went smoothly as everyone prepared themselves to board the large airship.

Heero had thought about it at one point, about the five of them boarding as well and being dropped off at HQ. But it was risky, for several reasons. The ship for transport was not so small or so fast that it would go undetected by the enemy. And there was a bigger possibility of spies as well. Then considering that OZ knew about Maxwell Church, they were probably out there watching and waiting for the opportunity for Duo to make himself known so he could be captured…or killed since they didn't know OZ's real objective yet.

With the transit they were heading to, it'd be small, nearly undetectable, and much faster even if it did take them a couple of days to even get to the ship. They would only have to worry about two crew members, the two pilots, and if it came down to it any one of them could fly the ship themselves, with the exception of Duo of course.

Basically, it was less likely for them to be eavesdropped on and gave more freedom to try and get more information out of 02. It also made it easier for 02 to focus more on the task at hand and not on the people he was trying to protect. Though they hadn't received much more information than what he'd provided a few days ago, he'd at least now opened up to the others a bit more, well with the exception of Wufei where neither male seemed to want to come to a truce.

The antsy Duo shifted beside him again, just itching to get into contact with his family. And though Heero said before that he wasn't letting Duo go see them in the case that OZ was out there watching, he did relent to one thing and tapped his earpiece to cut it on.

"Heavyarms, what's the situation?"

It took a second for him to get the response, even though he saw Trowa lift his hand and talk into the earpiece before the words came through. "Everything's ok on this side, Zero. What about you?"

"We're good here," Heero said glancing to the side at Duo who was biting his lips and staring down at the church. Heero looked down at the braided boy's hands, watching the twitching of his fingers before he returned his attention to the church. The boy was going to break and probably would abandon all reasoning soon if Heero didn't do this. "Let Father Maxwell use your earpiece for a moment."

Trowa didn't say anything, but from the sound of shuffling and the visual itself, he knew the other was doing as told with no questions. He removed his own earpiece, looking over at Duo who was staring at him like he'd lost his head before he reached down placing the earpiece in his hand.

"One minute," was all Heero told him, just barely seeing the nod as he got up and walked away to give Duo a moment. There was no harm in letting Duo take a moment to say goodbye to the family he'd lived with so long even though Heero was worried the other would decide not to go with them. They needed Duo's cooperation and the only way to make sure he stayed put was to give him a little leeway, at least in things he really wanted. Like talking to his family and making sure they were safe.

It was the same thing they did for witnesses needed to protect to testify against someone dangerous. The only way to receive their cooperation was to give them something they wanted, initially sealing a deal. Of course they didn't have the ability to escape so easily like Duo did, but their words held water as needed evidence. But just like with any negotiation, if the other team didn't fall through with the agreement, they could pull back whatever it was they'd given out. Duo Maxwell was no exception to this rule. If he didn't stay put and cooperate with them, they'd have to use his family to make him cooperate.

And as much as Heero hated doing it, it was a necessary part of the job that everyone had to and needed to take into consideration. But this was a special case. Because Duo Maxwell was one of the most important pieces to taking down OZ, they had to be careful. Because if something happened to his dear family, Heero had the feeling they would feel the brunt of it times two. Duo Maxwell was strong, not just mentally but strong physically as well.

For Duo to be able to catch his kick, something Heero had managed to knock two, even three men at a time down with, he must have known how to fight. He wanted to question whether OZ had taught him that as well, but he left it alone. Even if he asked, Duo wouldn't answer. Duo didn't trust them enough to give out too much information, something they were going to have to work on. He doubted he himself could get much out of the violet eyed male, but he was betting with a little work Quatre could make himself to be the greatest best friend the kid probably never had.

Heero leaned back against the doorframe of the large room and folded his arms. He glanced over, staring at Duo's back and barely listening to the quiet conversation the young male was having before he closed his eyes and relaxed tuning him out.

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"Are you doing well, Duo?"

The sound of the father's voice calmed Duo in a way he didn't think he needed. He felt himself relaxing and smiling as he stared down towards where the man was standing with the earpiece to his ear. It was something about seeing and hearing a person's voice to set one's mind at ease. At least in this case it helped set Duo's right.

"I'm fine, Father," Duo said softly, reaching out and placing his hand against the broken window. Even though he could see Father Maxwell and the others, he knew the man didn't know he was there. He wasn't supposed to know…because if he knew, then it'd be easy for OZ to know as well. They would know because Father Maxwell would be looking for him, even if he didn't intend to. "How are Sister Helen and the little rascals doing?"

"Fine. Everyone's fine here."

"That's good." He was genuinely relieved by that. These people were important to him. They'd helped him to survive and gave him a true reason to want to live besides through just revenge. He'd escaped from OZ but that didn't mean he didn't want to pay them back for what they'd done. Now if he only knew what he needed to do to make that happen.

"…How's Howard doing?" Duo asked, glancing back for a moment to see where Heero was. When he noticed the male resting up against the open doorway, arms folded and eyes closed, he turned around again. To anyone listening outside of the conversation, it sounded like he was asking about a friend.

"Oh, he's still getting over his illness. Nothing's changed for the better yet." Father Maxwell knew the game well, of what the 'illness' really entitled.

"I see." Duo frowned. Howard was the one that'd found Duo back when he'd escaped from OZ. He'd learned a lot of things from him. It was thanks to Howard that he'd ended up at Maxwell Church and lost a lot of his bloodlust.

The reason Duo knew so much about OZ and the world was thanks to Howard, the man former known as a member of OZ. Duo had learned a lot about how OZ worked and what their goals were. He'd been told of other experiments, other people that had been tested on and didn't live to tell about it. He didn't lie when he told Heero that OZ wanted world domination. OZ wanted control and was only a small part of the Romefeller Foundation stationed on Earth.

The Romefeller Foundation, as of this moment, could be said to own about sixty five percent of Earth, including resources, income, and military. Thirty percent was owned by the Sanc Kingdom under Queen Relena's reign and the final five percent by a miscellaneous guerilla faction that probably wouldn't last long. It was very probable that OZ was the research facility for Romefeller, even though two and two hadn't been put together yet publically to accuse them of the fact. Probably because OZ was a secret part of the foundation since they were doing illegal things under the table, such as experimenting on humans, kids even. However, even being a secret, there were leaks and of course rumors online based on said leaks.

OZ hid themselves well. In the years since his escape, he'd only found one of OZ's bases. It proved too much for him and in the process of trying to escape, he'd blown up the OZ base along with the colony it was located on. He'd been careless, hardheaded, and hotheaded at the time. Had he not been so stupid, had he not been so out to get blood and revenge….

No, he didn't want to think about that. He was different now. He wanted revenge, but he wasn't a cold blooded killer anymore. Father Maxwell had taught him that.

"Ah, tell Sister Helen I said hi."

"I will." Duo actually smiled as he saw Father Maxwell do just that before he glanced back seeing Heero looking at him as if to say time's up. "Look, I uh…I gotta run. I'm getting the evil eye now." He stuck his tongue out at Heero who just seemed to look away before looking at his watch. "Tell everyone I said hi…see ya when I see ya." He wouldn't lie and say he wasn't sad. He was leaving his only family after all.

"Bye Duo." And Duo thought for a moment that Father Maxwell saw him as he looked up in his direction. He didn't wave, gave no indication that he saw him other than the soft smile on his lips. "Stay safe." Duo smiled softly reaching out holding his hand against the glass, hating to have this barrier between them.

"Bye…Father Maxwell." His fingers lingered over the button to the earpiece before he sighed. He finally pressed it cutting the connection to his only link to Father Maxwell. No, it wasn't his only link. As long as he knew they were staying around the Preventers, he would find them again…as long as he stayed with them too.

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Heero stood there, his arms still crossed as he looked over at Duo. He stayed leaning against the wall watching the braided boy, just barely able to see the side of his somber face. Aside from a sort of calm look, Duo didn't show any real expression as he stared out the window towards his family.

It took a while for Duo to finally move as he stood up. Heero assumed that to mean that everyone had boarded the shuttle. 02 started walking towards him then past him, almost in a daze. Heero found himself reaching out and grabbing his wrist before he could stop himself.

"I'm just going to the toilet," Duo said before he smirked. Heero frowned and gripped his wrist tighter. A normal person would have winced in pain by now. Duo didn't. "What? You want to hold my hand while I piss? Didn't know you were that much of a pervert."

"Who is Howard?" Heero asked letting him go and wishing his ears would stop burning. This guy…was something else.

"Hm?" Duo blinked staring at him. It made Heero uneasy which was unusual and made him glance away as he tightened his jaw. It was only a few seconds to gather his bearings but by then Duo was looking away, if not to look out the window again.

"Howard's a family friend, "Duo said. "Found me when I was a kid on the streets. He's the one who brought me to the Maxwell Church." He smiled. "I learned a lot from him on the way there."

"Like what?"

Duo looked at him again but this time Heero didn't look away. "Reading, writing, the basics until we got to the church." Something was off. But he couldn't read it in Duo's eyes. As much as he loved to talk, he was pretty good at hiding things.

Heero shook his head dismissing the whole thing. Just like with everything else, including OZ, he'd have to wait until Duo provided them with the information.

"So am I allowed to go pee now, oh so majestic one?" He did a little bow as he said those last few words, smirking when he stood up to meet the glaring eyes and probably smiling in satisfaction when Heero looked away again.

"Hn. Don't take too long," Heero said watching him walking down the hall. He kept his eyes on him, trying not to stare at his butt as he walked. It was hard not to, not with the braid swinging back and forth past it like the pendulum of a grandfather clock. When Duo turned to the side to open the door, Heero could see the face clearly. He stared at the features, the chunky cheeks up to the round nose and on up seeing his eyelashes brush his skin each time he blinked.

He wondered if Duo felt saddened by having to leave his home so abruptly. Heero didn't know how long 02 must have lived there but he was able to bet it'd been some years. Duo had said since he was a kid…so how old was he now? He couldn't have been much older than Heero himself. At least he didn't look it.

He was startled out of his stupor when Duo looked at him suddenly. Something about those violet eyes got to him. They felt familiar to him. They drew him in. Had he met Duo once before? Maybe on a mission during his younger days as an apprentice assassin? It was possible. But he should have remembered such vivid features, especially those eyes.

"I'm not sad," Duo said suddenly drawing Heero's attention to him again. He was frowning and watching Heero, a bit cautiously it felt. "As long as they're alive and I know I'll see them again, I can't be." He smiled now, one that Heero found uncharacteristic for him though it was still charming. He actually smiled like he meant it. "Besides, I've gotten over being sad a long time ago. If a situation required me to cry, I wouldn't be able to."

"…What do you mean by-"

"Whoops! Nature calls!" He rushed into the abandoned bathroom and closed the rickety, broken door which creaked so loudly, Heero was worried someone would hear it. But they were safe here, he'd scoped this building out earlier and set up the necessary traps to alert him if someone came in. He turned heading back into the room and walking over to the window looking out. Everyone seemed to be in the shuttle now and he could see that Trowa had moved a ways back. It looked like they were just waiting for the takeoff and they'd be done with this.

His foot bumped against a bag by the wall and he glanced down staring at Duo's laptop bag. A portion of Duo's stuff, such as clothes and hair products were stuffed into Heero's duffle bag which was tucked safely away on his bike along with his laptop.

Duo's own laptop, however, was here, close to where the boy was. He refused to part from it and it was surprising he'd even left it here unattended except by a man he probably didn't fully trust. The laptop contained a key to Duo's past and maybe even hints to OZ's plans located within the small folder called simply "My Happy Place." It held tons of "Dear Diary" entries, each accessible only by entering a key password.

Heero wanted to get in and hack into those files to find those secret, but with the way things were right now he didn't have the time for it. They were on the move, trying to get to a destination that would be at least a few days ride from here as long as everything went accordingly. So for at least a night or two they would have to deal with finding a temporary hiding spot until they finally reached transit. Once that happened, they'd be on their way to the Preventers HQ and he'd have Duo out of his hair.

He needed to get him out of his hair. In the past few days since staying with Duo, he'd been having odd dreams about the violet eyed boy. Dreams that well…weren't meant for children that's for sure. He'd never had dreams like this or experiences like this. It made him restless, even uncomfortable being around Duo for long periods of time. How the other spoke to him didn't help things either and his crotch seemed to ache more the more he had those intense dreams.

Heero glanced out the window at the shuttle. Right now Trowa was talking with the captain, probably to figure out how much longer it would take them to get into the air.

Heero kneeled down starting to type on Duo's laptop before he flipped through the camera feeds for the area. He wasn't taking any chances. Considering how long they had to wait for transport to show up, the people of Maxwell Church were still in danger, at least until they could get in the air. They were vulnerable right now, with only a handful of agents there with weapons to help protect them. The field they were waiting in was pretty big aside from a few buildings here and there.

He'd suspected that OZ would question such a large shuttle showing up in the middle of nowhere. Not just that, but they were already suspicious of the Maxwell Church so he wouldn't have been surprised if they were still watching the people there. Something caught his attention from one of the cameras.

Crouched behind the surrounding bushes he saw the branches moving before he caught the gleam of weapons. He didn't need to ask who they were. They seemed like they were waiting on the shuttle to take off. And by the looks of it, their plans didn't fit in with his own, specially the large bazooka two of them were carrying.

"Heavyarms," Heero said into the headset not waiting for a response as he continued talking. "Two clock from where you're standing. We've got trouble."

"Roger that. I can take care of it from here." He didn't turn around to look but Heero knew he was accessing the situation. He knew the place well by now. Trowa pulled out his cellphone just looking as if he were just texting a message though Heero knew what he was doing. He was able to tap into the cameras using the phone. So he'd be able to see the enemy if necessary. But there were a few other things he could do as well…such as setting off traps.

They were already prepared for this. Since the plan to set up transport for Maxwell Church, they'd been planning and setting up booby-traps just in case OZ really did show up. There were various places around the current location that could be set off. The one that Trowa was about to activate was one of them.

He heard the static sound before Trowa's voice came through the mic. "Elimination completed." As soon as he'd said the words, Heero looked up hearing the large boom and seeing the smoke showing up in the direction the OZ soldiers were in and making the floors of the old building rumble slightly. So he'd set off one of the bombs. But if they were here already, there had to be more.

"Heavyarms, tell that pilot to hurry up and get those people out of there."

"Roger that." Trowa spoke with the pilot. It seemed the pilot needed no coaxing as he looked towards the black smoke curling towards the sky. The words were brief but in the next moment the pilot was heading inside the shuttle.

Heero felt himself breathing a little easier when he heard the shuttle starting up. Trowa was moving back away from the ship, taking cover by one of the nearby buildings to watch. His fingers were plugging up one ear while he seemed to push the earpiece deeper in the other against the loud screeching sound of the engine's roar.

Heero looked down at the laptop towards the feed. It seemed one of them had went out, probably do to the powerful winds the shuttle was pushing off. But he wanted to be safe and was about to try and get into contact with Trowa when he saw another of the feeds go out. It was followed by another then another. He knew this was no accident. The enemies were taking them out deliberately. He didn't even know how they were finding them. Some of these cameras were in some really hidden locations.

"Trowa, be careful. Something's taking out the cameras down there." He stood up, pulling out his gun to be safe and was about to close the laptop down when he saw something in the last feed. Frowning, he zoomed in on it. A man stood there in front of the camera, wearing what appeared to be a white suit with a white trench coat. He had a white, wide brim hat on that was tilted down enough to cover his eyes. But Heero saw the smirk on his lips as he lifted his hand up showing off all the cameras that had just been disabled before this feed as well suddenly snowed out.

Heero kneeled there frowning and staring at the monitor. There was no way this one person had taken out all those cameras. They were stretched around the whole airfield. Hell, it'd taken Heero a good hour to walk around earlier not to mention locating the cameras which he needed Duo's help with.

Then something else dawned on him. The last few cameras hadn't been out on the field like the rest of them. This one in particular had been planted inside the control tower on the fifth floor. They were on the seventh…which meant none of his traps had been set off otherwise he would have known instantly.

"Heero, we-"

Heero turned quickly pointing the gun at a startled Duo before he breathed a sigh of relief lowering the gun down. "Don't do that," he said glaring at the male.

"Sorrrry!" Duo said rolling his eyes slightly. "I told you, guns don't hurt me."

"Hn." Heero just grunted choosing to ignore his words. He didn't put the gun away, reaching down and sliding the laptop into the pack before carrying it over to Duo. "Carry this. We need to go."

"Yeah, that's what I came in here to tell you. I think someone's inside the building." Duo looked down at the bag mumbling something about a waste of good cameras, but Heero disregarded it even though he really wanted to question how Duo knew these things. Right now he was focused on how to get them out of here. They'd already planned this out before, the route they would take. Three ways out in case of invasion.

"Let's go," Heero said only glancing back briefly. "We're heading to the first escape route so stay close and stay quiet."

"Yes, boss." And if he could smack the smirk off that face he knew was there, he would. But he'd have to wait on that. Top priority was getting 02 out of the building and to safety.

TBC…

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Yep, we're getting to some action now. :3 And I am so enjoying it.


	9. Chapter 9

Pairings: Duo/Heero, Quatre/Trowa

Warnings: possibilities of later violence? supernatural stuff, kinky moments, not sure what all's gonna be in here yet

Author's comment: Much action in this one.

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Operation Blank Conspiracy 09

He had to be careful of his own traps during their escape. So far, using the stairs on the other side of the building, they'd managed to make it to the fourth floor. Not once did they come across any hidden enemies or the man with the hat who'd smiled so sadistically into the camera. He wondered if it was really OZ that was after them. He'd never seen anyone dressed as him before. But those guys from earlier had been part of OZ. Why was this one different?

He'd tried getting into contact with Trowa to tell him the situation but something interfered with his link to the other male. His earpiece was useless and so was his phone that continued to show no signal to him. They were slowly being trapped, isolated from the other in their group.

They were making it down to the third floor when the whole building rumbled causing them to stumble off balance for a moment. The shuttle was taking off and when the two of them rushed to the nearest window, they saw it hovering up in the air getting higher and higher. Heero glanced at Duo watching the male's facial expression. He seemed content with it, especially to see they were getting away from the danger chasing after them. OZ, after all, wasn't after the people on the shuttle from Maxwell Church. It was Duo Maxwell, the man that had escaped from OZ with whatever secrets he'd taken with him that they wanted.

Heero tapped the other's shoulder and waited until Duo looked at him to gesture with his head for the male to follow him. Duo nodded his consent and the two of them continued making their way down the steps. They made it down to the first floor before exiting out of the stairwell and heading towards the side exit at the end of the hallway. Urgency rushed him, not so much for himself but for his need to get Duo to safety. He shouldn't have agreed to this plan but unless he said yes to it he knew Duo wouldn't have come along with them.

"That's far enough," a voice said from behind them and he didn't have the ability to turn around in time to aim his weapon. His hand was hovered over the exit door at the time, so close yet so far from his goal. He was still holding his gun in his free hand and he tightened his grip debating how best to go about this. He hadn't even heard the man walk up much like how he'd never heard Duo's footfalls once since being with the male. Maybe it had to do with some special training at OZ.

"I know what you're contemplating," the male said confidently. He could almost hear the smirk on his lips. "Now put down your weapon and turn around slowly. Both of you."

"…." Slowly Heero lowered the weapon to the ground before he turned himself to face their assailant. The man from the video feed stared back at them, except his white hat continued to cover his eyes. He was smirking, just as Heero thought. He held his gun pointed at Heero, though his focus seemed to change to Duo. It was hard to tell when one couldn't see where the eyes were gazing.

Duo himself stood there, gaze focused on the male before him. He seemed to be trying to read the man though his countenance betrayed nothing of what he was feeling at that moment. At this point, both males were trapped. Sure, either one of them could make a run for it but Heero doubted they'd both make it out alive. He did have a spare gun tucked into the back part of his pants. When he had the opportunity, he was going to use it. The mysterious agent wouldn't be able to keep an eye on both of them.

"Subject 02," the male said giving a slight bow of his head. "It's been a long time."

Heero blinked and glanced sideways at Duo. He saw Duo's eyes narrow dangerously as he stared at the male in front of them.

"Who are you?" Duo asked.

The man didn't answer him, instead using his gun to gesture for Duo to walk forward. "Please come stand within seven feet of me. Any closer or any less and I will shoot."

Duo frowned at first before he lips lifted into a smirk and he chuckled staring at the man. It wasn't a light hearted chuckle either. He sounded like he wanted to kill the guy…and it was enough to make even Heero shiver from the sound. "You must not have done your research at OZ then…unless you're not from OZ at all." A sadist smirk took over Duo's lips. "Guns don't hurt me. A lot of things can't hurt me."

"Then we're the same, aren't we?" The same? What did he mean by that? The gun shifted pointing at Heero and making the Preventer grunt. Duo frowned at the words, his eyes taking in where the gun was pointing before his eyes seemed to darken even more. "The same can't be said for him, can it? He's important to you isn't he?"

"You realize you're playing with fire, don't you?" Duo took a step, walking toward the man slowly. "If you hurt an innocent person, I won't take into account what I might do to you."

"Then maybe I'm a pyromaniac," the male said and pulled the trigger. A shot rang out flying past Duo and moving past Heero, grazing his shoulder before it hit the door. He winced out at the sharp pain feeling like he'd just be cut by a sharp knife and grabbed his arm quickly. Looking down, he saw the blood on his fingers before he looked up at the sharp dressed male. "I didn't say you could move," the male said, now focused on Heero.

Heero just stared at him, staring at him with a wonder he'd only been reserving for Duo. This man knew what he was going to do. Heero was planning to grab his gun while the guy was distracted with Duo and use it to their advantage. It would have been risky, but he was going to try to send a shot off and hopefully dislodge the gun from the man's hand if nothing else. But the male beat him to it, beat him before he'd even really registered to go through with his plan. How…? How had he known what he was thinking?

"Zero!" Duo turned away from the man and Heero couldn't seem to warn him fast enough when he saw the man run towards him.

"Duo, look out!" Too late. By the time Duo turned around, the man was already on him pressing the gun to his chest and firing. The smirk stayed on the man's lips even after Duo crumpled to the floor in front of him. "Duo!"

Heero pulled his gun out and crouched down grabbing the other one as well as he pointed them both at the man and fired away with no remorse. The shots rang out one after the other until the ringing sounds of empty clicks reached his ear. He swallowed, still crouched down on the ground staring at the male, glaring at him. Duo hadn't moved yet which bothered him more than it should have.

The man in the white hat lifted his head then, looking at Heero with clear red eyes unlike anything he'd seen before. The shine to them resembled the way Duo's own eyes seemed to glow unnaturally. They were also just as unsettling and Heero had to force himself not to look away.

The tall male was still smirking as he stood lowering his gun. The bullets Heero shot at him fell to the ground sounding like ringing bells in his ears. There wasn't a mark on the man, not a single hit at all or even a drop of blood. How was that possible? Was he even human? What the hell were they up against?

He stepped over Duo's body and Heero frowned dropping both his weapons in favor of the knife he kept hidden on him. The male was on his way towards him and Heero slowly pushed to his feet preparing himself and hoping the man didn't just opt out to shoot him.

Then he stopped. Not because of fear or pity, but because Duo had grabbed his leg to keep him from moving. He didn't turn around though, staring ahead even though the two of them stayed still like motionless statues. Only when Duo used both his hands to reinforce his grip on his leg did he fully acknowledge his presence.

"So you're already awake after that," the man said making to kick him, but Duo kept holding on till the male turned around and lifted his foot balancing on one leg and staring Duo in the eye.

"I thought your voice sounded familiar," Duo said and he seemed to grin at him and wrapped both his legs around the suspended leg seeming to weigh nothing at all by how the male still stood on his one foot. "I should have known you wouldn't be dead…01."

…01? Did he really just call him 01? Heero stared at the two males. There was a sort of endearing sound to the words 01 when Duo said them. But he couldn't tell by the look in his violet eyes. So if this was 01…Heero could safely assume he was part of OZ's experiment as well. How many experiments did OZ have?

"As much as I'd like to catch up on old times," 01 said as he lifted his foot to eye level. "OZ wants me to bring you back alive…." He lowered his leg swiftly slamming Duo's back into the floor roughly causing the braided one to cough harshly and loosen his grip. It was hard enough that the ground had actually caved in where Duo was slammed. "Not that I expect you to die so easily anyway."

Heero gripped the knife tightly and started to rush towards him but 01 anticipated it, pointing the gun and firing again, the bullet whizzing past Heero's head to crash into the wall behind him. It froze him where he was and gave him time to realize he'd been given a warning shot. If this man wanted to, he could kill him. He was well aware of that.

"I'd appreciate it if you stopped trying to interfere," he said slamming his foot into Duo's chest hard before he looked over at Heero with danger glaring in his eyes. "I'm trying to have a conversation with my friend here."

"You'll need to do it on someone else's watch then," and Heero looked down just as he saw two smoke bombs roll to 01's feet. As soon as they went off he was running. He ran as quick as he'd ever done before, grabbing 02 up the best he could before he was moving again further down the hall to the other side exit. An explosion sounded behind him shaking the building roughly and it took everything not to lose his balance. He looked back, seeing the black smoke from the explosion and no sign of their pursuer before he went out the side exit. As soon as he was out, Trowa was coming around the side of the building to help him carry Duo towards the bikes. Duo's head lolled as he was dragged along knocked out but with no obvious injuries though Heero was still careful.

Once they'd gotten far enough away from the building, Heero held up his cellphone punching in a few keys before the whole building exploded collapsing in on itself. Well at least his phone worked again.

They were little more than halfway to the bikes before Duo seemed to awaken and pulling himself from their grip. His eyes were wild for a moment but as he stared at them he slowly started to calm himself. He'd passed out during the chest stomp by 01 though the way he was moving around right now, you wouldn't think he'd just had his body literally stomped by a tall man like that. Hell, he'd been shot but there wasn't any blood on him at all.

Heero swallowed, both he and Trowa standing across from Duo. Trowa had probably seen it too cause he stood watching cautiously even though his body stayed in a casual pose. Duo was…what was he? He didn't seem human, but he didn't look like a monster. When he should have been dead or seriously injured at least, he was standing in front of them as alive and lively as ever. The man back there was the same way, uninjured even after being shot at with two guns. Heero wouldn't even be surprised if the man was still alive after having the whole control tower fall on him.

Heero opened his mouth to speak but Duo beat them both to it.

"It's part of the experiment OZ performed on us," Duo said looking them both dead in the eyes. "Super humans…or humans that can survive almost anything. Apparently, this one guy started the whole idea and tried it on a few simple rats and…well it's a pretty long story so…"

Heero nodded. "We'll save it for when we get to the next safe house." Trowa looked as if he didn't agree with it but he only gave a simple nod before going over to his own bike. Heero moved to his own bike, climbing onto it before he looked back at Duo and gestured to the back. "Get on."

Duo stood there, frowning slightly and staring at him. "You sure? I'm mighty dangerous. I might kill you." He smirked at that, making a joke out of it, one that Heero didn't laugh at.

"If you had wanted to kill me, you would have done so by now." Heero grabbed the cracked helmet tossing it to Duo who caught it easily. "Get on."

"…" Duo frowned down at the thing, twisting it in his hands before he looked up at him again. "I really don't need-"

"Just shut up and follow orders," Heero said glaring until the braided male finally relented and slipped the helmet on. He waited until he felt Duo pressed up behind him, arms around his waist, before he looked over at Trowa. "We'll meet you at the spot. Make sure you're not being trailed before you get there." Trowa nodded at that and revved up his engine pulling off first. Heero wasn't long behind him, the two following alongside each other before Heero veered off taking another route. As long as he was on the move, he'd be able to throw the enemy off if they were being followed. Behind him, Duo stayed a silent presence, but Heero didn't dare to check on him while they rode, content to spending the rest of that day and most of that night riding in silence. Besides, his mind had a lot of things to process, and a lot of things to try and figure out such as, 'who and what was Duo Maxwell?'

TBC….

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And here's hoping everyone enjoyed this one.


	10. Chapter 10

airings: Duo/Heero, Quatre/Trowa

Warnings: possibilities of later violence? supernatural stuff, kinky moments, not sure what all's gonna be in here yet

Author's comment: Much action in this one.

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Operation Blank Conspiracy 10

Time: 09:30 hours

The room they'd found themselves in was well…it sucked. It looked like crap, it smelled like crap, and honestly Duo didn't want to think about the brown stains on the floors and walls that could have been from crap. They were in a shady part of a small town on L2, not really a red district but close enough.

The motel owner was some grimy looking man in his middle ages. He didn't look too clean, didn't smell it either, not from the looks of those stains on his shirt like he was some kind of grease monkey. But he asked no questions and gave no information unless you had the money for it. Considering how much money Heero and Trowa dished out to him to keep him silent about their whereabouts, he figured they wouldn't have a problem of discovery here.

The three boys hadn't said anything to each other, mostly just taking care of things like checking the building inside and out for escape routes and vulnerabilities in security. Though they seemed to act normal, the tension was in the air still. Duo felt it so strong he could have lit it on fire. All of that tension was because of him. He could swear Trowa wanted to kill him now and wasn't going to only because his leader didn't tell him too. A lot of good that would have done him anyway.

So by the time everyone was done with their checks, it'd been an hour later. He hated to admit it but during that hour he'd spent the time thinking about 01. He couldn't figure out how the man was alive, but it bothered him to see him. If 01 were anything like him, he knew the building falling on him back at the airbase wouldn't have killed him…knock him out maybe, but not kill. But it would at least give them the needed time to escape.

Right now, Duo was laying on one of the worn down beds, hoping against all odds that these sheets were clean. From the looks of the stains he'd seen on them, he really, seriously doubted it. A shower could probably help. He really didn't feel clean at all, not with the getting stomped in the chest and getting shot at and sweating and stuff. He just felt really icky.

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Heero sat down on the bed opposite of Duo. He noticed that Duo pretended not to notice them, literally rolling over so he was facing away from them and pretending to sleep. He'd been like this the whole time since they'd gotten here, just lying around and being completely useless.

His shoulder ached a little from the scrape of the bullet whizzing by back at the control tower, but other than that he hardly noticed it. He'd already taken care of it, bandaging it up, something 02 seemed to watch with intensity, at least until he took notice of Heero watching him anyway. Interesting…was 02 actually worried about him? Or was he just fascinated with seeing a wound being cleaned and bandaged?

Trowa had gone out a few moments ago to get them some food. To Heero, it was probably for the best. Trowa hadn't been comfortable being around 02 since the whole, walking around like nothing happened after being shot then kicked. So he'd seemed pretty thankful for the errand.

The motel room wasn't big, naturally, having two beds, an old fashion TV, a table, and the one bathroom, all of which they were going to have to find some way to share. But since at least one of them, mainly Heero and Trowa, needed to stay awake for watch duty, there wouldn't be much problem with sharing a bed.

Heero continued to stare at Duo's back, his eyes following the trail of the braid leading down to nestle just underneath Duo's butt. He wondered why the other didn't just cut it off. He stood out too much with the long thing and really wouldn't have to worry about hiding so much if he'd just chop it short. His eyes didn't help much either. Why wasn't he using contact lenses or something?

Duo seemed to get tired of being stared at, which was Heero's intentions, and sighed as he turned over grumpily, propping his head on his hand as he looked at Heero looking a little frustrated. "Ok ok, what do you want?" he asked.

"…Explain how you're still alive?" Heero asked him. He watched the face that, as usual, gave nothing away of his real thoughts. Instead Duo just looked up at him, staring at him until he frowned and looked away. 02 had to have known the effects his eyes had on people. They weren't normal…very unnatural…and about as bad as having a cat staring at you.

Only after Heero had looked away did Duo speak. And when he did, Heero looked at him again to see that his eyes were closed now. "You know that OZ has been experimenting on humans, right? Heh, otherwise you wouldn't have known about me." Duo rolled over onto his back, opening his eyes again as he stared up at the ceiling. "OZ has this little thing called Fly Z. It's a little drug some scientist made a long time ago. He apparently went missing some years before I escaped."

"And what is Fly Z?"

"Fly Z is…well…a drug enhancer. Overtime it changes the overlay of your body. Basically it makes your skin tougher, your muscles stronger, and does weird things with your psyche too." Duo sat up a bit and pointed towards the TV. "For instance," and even though he lowered his hand just staring at the television, the TV popped on. Heero frowned and glanced over seeing the remote on the nightstand between them. It hadn't been touched. "I can control electronics with my thoughts. I can see the feeds on my laptop without looking at them…at least until someone breaks them anyways." A single thought later and the TV was cut off again. "I can faintly read what you're thinking."

Heero looked over at him finding the violet eyes staring at him. He felt his cheeks redden at the smile aimed at him and lowered his eyes looking at everything but the boy in front of him. Well that was uncomfortable.

"But like I said, it's faint….maybe a couple of words at most." At the look Heero gave him, he just shrugged his shoulders. "Just think of me as being some type of superhuman. I'm stronger, faster, and general just better than you. That's why I said I don't really need your help. No offense."

"None taken," Heero said though he was frowning still. True, this person in front of him was all those things plus more…but…something was still wrong. "If you're as strong as you say you are, why haven't you taken out OZ?"

"I've tried," Duo said and he frowned when he said the words. His eyes seemed to get distant as he talked, though Heero started to wonder if that was just his imagination. "Once. It ended in failure." He let it die off there. Heero wanted to ask him more about it. He could tell Duo was keeping something hidden about the incident; something about the way his eyes darkened let him know.

But Heero had more things he needed to know. "Who is 01?" Heero asked. The door opened to the room and he looked up seeing Trowa carrying some bags inside. He only gave a brief nod before he returned his attention to Duo waiting on the other's answer. "Well?"

"01 is…." Duo frowned again staring at the blank TV screen. "He was with me at OZ. The both of us were homeless little brats who worked together to get food and stuff for the others in our gang. He was the leader and everyone looked up to." He laid back again staring up at the ceiling making himself comfortable. Trowa brought Heero a plate of fried chicken and French fries and, though he wasn't big on eating this greasy stuff, he ate it to get at least some nutriment in his body. In a place like this, beggars couldn't be picky…or whatever the saying was.

"The both of us were captured by OZ during a food run and brought to the laboratory. You probably wouldn't believe it but the two of us were the first two subjects in their experiments. A couple of homeless kids without a family? Heh, who would think to look for us?" He rolled over staring at Heero just as the other was about to take a bite out of the chicken leg and grinned though he kept going with his story.

"Anyway, I'm making this too long. Long story short, they injected us, spent like five years or something there. By then we were old enough and smart enough to know that we needed to get out of that place. With all those enhancing drugs and all the stuff we could do, we took the chance." He got up walking over to the food on the table by the window and grabbed himself a plate putting his meal together.

"We slipped past cameras and scientist, and took out soldiers like it was nothing. It wasn't until we were halfway to the exit that they finally put a stop to us. But while I managed to escape, 01 didn't. He got shot, beaten, and had his arms and legs broken unnaturally by some weird mechanical robots that I was sure he'd died. Those robots are made out of some pretty strong metal, stronger than what we were used to at the time. We're superhuman but we're not completely invincible. Sure, we can handle some explosives, having buildings fall on us, guns…but those things…."

He shuddered at the thought of them and it literally made Heero want to know what exactly those robots were made out of to cause that kind of reaction. Dare he say it? He was curious and wanted to see for himself these robots of OZ.

"They play a sound, something regular people can't hear but we can hear. It makes it feel like your brain is being ripped from your head and messes with your senses. It apparently effects the not being hurt part of things…like it cancels out the effects of the drugs."

Duo ate a French fry before he continued talking. "So of course I thought he was dead…I had to keep moving to get away."

"But he's alive…"

"Yeah…" Duo moved again sitting in front of the other two on the bed. "He's alive somehow…and he's working for OZ."

"Brainwashing?"

"It's possible." Duo shrugged taking a bite of his chicken. "Whey mere wrhing mer woo wat."

"…Quit chewing with your mouth full," Heero said glaring. Well that wasn't attractive at all.

"Wowwy," Duo said and swallowed before he continued speaking. "I said they were trying to do that. Guess it may have worked out for them."

He didn't say anything else until his food was finished. It was surprising how quickly the boy ate off the rest of the plate as if he hadn't had a bite to eat all his life. Well maybe it had to do with being shot to death without dying. Sitting his plate to the side, Duo stood up stretching and forcing Heero to look away from the rising shirt. "Geez, I feel like someone just threw mud all over me. Hope you guys don't mind but I'm taking me a bath. Not that it'd make a different in this smelly place but I can just pretend anyway."

"Wait…"

"Why?" Duo looked down at Heero and it looked like his eyes were sparkling at that moment as he smirked falling into his mischievous state. "Gonna join me?"

"…I might."

"Heh, just like I thought. Well I'm gonna go and…wait, w-what?"

"I said I might," Heero repeated in perfect seriousness. Duo was flabbergasted, his mouth wide open and his cheeks red as he stared at him like he was a madman. Heero hadn't expected the reaction, but he found it amusing. Here 02 was acting like the big tough guy but a couple of words from Heero made him blush like a teenager…which he was technically. "There's a window in there," Heero said looking up at him. "Your protection is still priority. It'd be more efficient if I were to-"

"Argh! Really! I'm only playing around! Stop taking things so seriously! I-I can handle myself!" He sounded frustrated and the red in his cheeks showed he was still feeling pretty embarrassed. It was a cute aspect of his that Heero had started taking notice of. Duo may act like a pervert, but in reality he was like an innocent wallflower.

Heero was willing to bet he was probably still a virgin. Every time Heero would go to undress to bathe or even just to change, the other was quick to find a way to leave. It was a good way of keeping the braided one out of his hair but it also served to mess up that little cocky act of his. He was learning some things about OZ's little test subject.

"I'm going to go take my bath!" Duo yelled out standing by the bathroom door and looking back at the both of them. "And don't even THINK about coming in here!"

"…He's acting like a girl," Trowa said standing and looking over at Heero, amusement in his eye. It was good to see that the other had relaxed after hearing the story. Despite how Duo acted, he was too pure. Though he did keep a lot of secrets from them, he didn't lie about them. He more like left them out of the story on purpose. But so far that Heero had noticed, the male didn't lie. It must have had something to do with his past, or maybe with being with Maxwell Church for so long. He'd told Heero that guns didn't hurt him and he meant it. If Heero didn't believe him then that was his own fault.

Heero sniffed in response and turned pulling his laptop from its bag. "That's because he is a girl." He was referring back to Duo's little stunt earlier at the safe house, the whole cross-dressing and trying to trick the others. The braided one picked up on the little joke because he blew out an exasperated breath before going into the bathroom and slamming the door shut, only taking a moment before Heero heard the distinct click of the door's lock.

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Time: 11:30 hours

Dear Diary,

Heero sucks. It's official. As for the rest of my day, it's been pretty annoying too. The others found out about my uh…condition. And 01's still alive which would be a good thing if he wasn't trying to kill me. I don't know exactly what's going on or why 01…no…why Solo's even alive but I do know I'm going to do everything in my power to find out. I just wanted to type something in here cause I don't know how long we'll be travelling or when my next chance will be.

Also, Trowa sucks too. It's official. He's as bad as Heero though he's sneakier in the way he does it. Heero's just flat out blunt. I've also noticed that lately I can't read any of Heero's thoughts. He must either really not be thinking about anything, or he's learned how to keep me from reading his thoughts. Anyway, I need to get to bed. I think we're getting up pretty damn early in the morning to continue our "adventure." Maybe we'll find a +1 sword on the way to our destination or something. That'd be awesome, actually. See ya!

Duo Maxwell.

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TBC…

Because I so adore this story. Chapter 11's already done I just gotta get around to the whole proofreading part of it.


	11. Chapter 11

Pairings: Duo/Heero, Quatre/Trowa

Warnings: possibilities of later violence, supernatural stuff, kinky moments, guns...um...gundams?

Author's comment: Sorry for another long wait between updates. x.x I'm still working on my cosplays for this upcoming con so it's giving me little time to update my stories...even if this one is at least two chapters written in advance...that I need to really really edit better for some major changes but yeah...Enjoy! Yay run on sentence!

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Operation Blank Conspiracy 11

Operation BC: Mission Report 13

We are currently onboard our transport heading for HQ. We had an encounter with a mysterious man, also known as 01, who seems to have close ties with 02. 01 appears to be part of OZ's experiment as well. He has shown exceptional skills such as being shot several times yet remaining unharmed. The same can be said of 02 who had been shot point blank yet suffered no injuries.

We learned from our small interrogation of 02 that OZ has developed a drug called Fly-Z. When used over time, the drug makes a human's body almost invincible. So far we learned that OZ has strong robots made of a unique type of metal that can literally destroy the experiments, probably used as a safety measure to keep the test subjects under control. I believe it may be related to the metals we are using but I would have to investigate further to find out. 01 may still be pursuing us along with the rest of OZ. They seem determined to have 02 back in their hands.

There is still a bit of tension between 02 and the others since they were informed of 02's abilities but they will continue with the mission. Since explain the OZ drug, Fly-Z, to them they have calmed down and have continued to be civil towards 02. Sandrock has been researching nonstop on Fly-Z and other types of illegal drug enhancers. However, hostility still continues between Shenlong and 02. I will maintain control of the situation if it proves to get out of hand. END REPORT.

Heero frowned leaning back in his seat. The situation was under control simply because Wufei refused to have anything to do with Duo besides protecting him when necessary. He'd gone so far as to vacant the area when the other was nearby. But he didn't go against protocol or his mission. That was all Heero cared about.

Because of how small the shuttle was, there wasn't much room to move around. The front of the shuttle housed the pilot and copilot with an extra seat for any third person that joined them. Right now, Trowa was up there with them, not just to supervise or as a backup but also to find out if anything was going on at HQ. Since the two parts were part of Division 3 along with Trowa, there was some information they could pass on to him. So far, from what Trowa had told him during a small break, there hadn't been any changes at HQ.

The middle section, where they were now, had the passenger seating, at least about twelve seats, two to a row. They were currently being occupied by Heero and Quatre, the two of them typing away on the keyboards to their laptops until Heero took his break. The seat across the aisle from Heero held a laptop bag belonging to a braided male by the name of Duo Maxwell, who was currently out of sight but not missing. Heero knew exactly where he was.

The braided boy was in the third compartment of the small ship. Here they had a small, very small, kitchen and a small cot against the back wall next to the bathroom. Supposedly Duo should be sleeping there since he said he needed some shut eye. Course that wasn't a surprise. He'd been nodding off for the first hour or so before making that announcement. Wufei was back there as well. Whether in the restroom or in the kitchen, Heero wasn't sure. He hadn't come back yet and that was making the lead Preventer a little suspicious.

It was probably about time he checked on his charge anyway. It was a little on the quiet side considering how much Duo normally liked to talk. Besides, Heero needed a break. He'd been typing on his report for a while now, stuck between that and looking up more info on OZ and thinking about the strange things involving 01 and 02. Though if what Duo said was true about the two being orphans then their names were probably not their real ones. That would explain why they could never find any information on Duo. That and probably cause Duo deleted any information they did have, he assumed.

Standing, Heero stretched for a moment before he looked over at Quatre typing away on his laptop.

"You find anything yet?"

"OZ must have gotten a new programmer. I'm actually having a hard time cracking into their database." Quatre sighed leaning back and looking up at Heero. The redness of his baggy eyes proved how long he'd been working on this. They've been floating out here in space at least eight hours now. Not once had Quatre moved from his chair. They still had a couple of days left of travel before they reached HQ. It was still faster than using the bigger transports that would have taken five days but that didn't mean it wasn't long and boring still.

"I'll have to wait till I get back to HQ. We have better, faster equipment there that will make this process a lot easier."

"Take a break. If there's nothing you can do here, then there's nothing you can do."

"Thanks." Quatre smiled at that and closed his eyes turning his head away slightly. "I'll just rest my eyes for a little while, but I want to check on some more of these drugs."

"Just do what you can." Heero patted him on the shoulder once before he started heading to the back. Travelling was smooth so walking felt like it would on the ground, especially with zero-G, or the no gravity system, cut off. He knew Quatre wouldn't sleep long. None of them did while on missions. They stayed wired and alert and only slept for the necessary time needed to function properly. He was surprised how long he'd slept at Duo's friend's place…Hilde wasn't it? He'd never slept so well before or for so long. It must have been because of the homely atmosphere. A shame they couldn't find any information on Hilde, except for what Duo wanted them to find. Smooth bastard.

As Heero got closer to the back he started to hear voices. There didn't seem to be any hostility to the conversation which was very surprising to him. The only two people that should be back here were Duo Maxwell, who was supposed to be napping, and Wufei, who'd been back there for a considerably longer time than he'd normally be.

Considering how "well" the two of them got along, he was really surprised not to hear any yelling. He worried if someone else had gotten on board the shuttle and found himself moving into stealth mode as he got closer. He even patted at his side to make sure his gun was on him.

As he paused by the door to the final compartment, he stayed still and listened. The voices were soft but he could tell that one of them belonged to Duo. The other…was it really Wufei? He didn't sound angry. He talked like he was talking to any one of them, very civil.

Heero relaxed instantly, breathing easier. Well he hadn't expected this. Wufei seemed to be getting along well with Duo suddenly. In fact, he seemed to be doing better than any one of them had done. But as strange as it was, Wufei was good at that. He was good with all the political talk, whenever he wasn't busy staring at his targets like they were idiots anyway.

The two continued to talk oblivious to Heero's intrusion as he pulled away from the door heading back towards the front. He might as well try his hand at cracking into Duo's laptop. He just needed to his head clear so Duo wouldn't pick up on his intentions. At least he'd be able to edit the part about Duo and Wufei not getting along in his report.

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Duo sat on the bed with his back against the wall and his knees pulled up to his chest. He didn't know how he'd ended up with Wufei sitting beside him like they were old friends. Somehow it involved him being woken up from one of his horrible nightmares. He didn't get them as often as he had when he was a kid, but they did reoccur at least once a week or two.

It'd been about three weeks now though since he'd last had one. This was the first it'd occurred since being around the others. He hated it, hated seeing 01's body being mutilated again and again by those robots, those machines. A normal human couldn't survive something like that. However, a human on years and years of Fly-Z could. But they'd live with nothing more than the pain; pain he'd gotten so used to that he couldn't feel it anymore.

It wasn't the only nightmare he had. He'd done a lot of horrible things during his escape. He destroyed a lot of lives, innocent or not. People who had families waiting at home for them. He even dreamed about when he destroyed….

No, he didn't want to think about that again. The thought always made him feel sick to his stomach. So after Wufei had woken him up from his nightmare and Duo came close to snapping his arm off, he recoiled. He panted hard feeling like a wild animal and probably looking like one by the way Wufei was staring at him. He would have laughed at the look and even picked on him if he didn't feel so weirded out right then.

Instead, he'd slunk himself back against the wall into the position he was in now. He thought Wufei would have left him to himself after awakening him so he was surprised a little when he felt the bed sink in as Wufei sat down beside him.

Neither said anything for a while to the point it became a very dull silence. Not much could faze Duo, but the silence wasn't a comfortable one. He didn't like quiet times like this, especially after having the nightmares. Silence always tried to make him sleep again so he could fall into the nightmares again.

"Um…"

"Shh…just shut up and think." Wufei shushed him quickly and Duo blinked in confusion before he frowned looking over at him. The Chinese male had his eyes closed looking like he'd fallen asleep. He'd seen Wufei do this sort of thing before, sitting back against a wall and just meditating, especially after Duo did something to provoke him.

"Hey now, what are you-"

"Sometimes, it's better to be silent and think." Was he calling him stupid? Duo frowned taking the words in a bad away and was about to protest. Wufei beat him to it though, as if he knew he was going to complain about the words. "Think of things that make you happy. Not of things that connect to misfortune."

"Heh. Easier said than done."

Wufei didn't respond leaving them in silence and Duo to stare at him. The braided male leaned back really looking at him. When he thought about it, Wufei was wise beyond his age. He wasn't all that bad looking too. Duo could imagine him with his hair down though he almost giggled at the thought of him being bald.

He slid up more till he was sitting directly beside Wufei and looked over trying to mimic his posture before he closed his eyes. Duo sighed relaxing and doing his best to try not to let the thoughts of the nightmares return. Just shut up and think, huh? Much easier said than done.

But then he was doing it. Not thinking about the nightmares but his life back at Maxwell Church. He thought of Father Maxwell and the others who were, literally, his family. He'd do anything for them. Just like he'd do anything for Hilde. It put a smile on his face thinking about them all. Looks like the thinking nice things part was helping out.

He remembered how he met her, how he'd literally run right into her while escaping from a group of thugs a year ago. They'd been best of friends since and he'd even been able to tell her his secret, which of course just made her even more protective of him. She was probably a few years older than him and he couldn't help imagining her as his older sister, something he'd never had before. Despite the fact that he couldn't die or really be injured, she always tried to protect him and worried about him constantly. He wondered what she was doing…or how she'd feel knowing that he was gone now. Would he even be able to see her again?

No…think happy thoughts. He needed to think positively. He'd see her again. He was sure of it.

Then he started thinking about Heero and the other preventers, including Wufei. They were slowly growing on him and it was making it harder not to get attached...even if Heero was a stupid jerk for calling him a girl. Of course that was his own fault. Still, he wanted to trust them. He wanted to believe in them. But he knew it wouldn't last, not once he got to the Preventers Headquarters. He wasn't too surprised at the thought that he'd be caged up like a wild animal. Well that all depended on if they had metal strong enough to do that. But he needed to cooperate…if he wanted to keep Father Maxwell and the others safe he needed to.

His body felt heavy from all the thoughts. There were a lot of things he needed to take care of. The thought of it all made him tired. He still needed to take care of OZ. He needed to get in contact with Howard and also to find out where the people of Maxwell Church were taken. He also needed to find a way to be able to defend himself against those robots from OZ as well as 01. And if 01 was really being brainwashed, he needed to stop that as well.

He yawned slightly, his body leaning to the side heavily until he was resting up against Wufei's side. He didn't even know what he'd just done as his thoughts started to run away from him leaving him in a silence he wasn't accustomed to, a peaceful silence. As the thoughts ran away and his head continued to rest on the cushy warmth of Wufei's shoulder, he let sleep claim him once again and welcomed the needed rest.

TBC….

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Did I mention I'm a 5x2 fan? D: I'm also a 1x5x2 fan! :D So don't be surprised if I have fun with that a few times in this story. Hope you enjoyed the update!


	12. Chapter 12

Pairings: Duo/Heero, Quatre/Trowa

Warnings: possibilities of later violence, supernatural stuff, kinky moments, guns...um...gundams?

Author's comment: Yeah sorry again for another long wait. I've been working these cosplays for the last few weeks x.x since they're almost done I'll probably start updating regularly soon. Lol or as regularly as I normally do. Anyways, enjoy!

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Operation Blank Conspiracy 12

"Welcome back, agents," one of the techs said as soon as they'd exited the shuttle. Heero didn't say anything besides a small grunt of acknowledgement. Wufei didn't even register the tech's presence. But then this was a normal occurrence for the two. The tech wasn't even fazed. Trowa at least nodded to the young male while Quatre gave his customary greeting.

Everything was how it would normally after a mission except for the braided male who was spinning around in Zero-G looking at everything with an awed look on his face.

"Wow, this place is huge!" Duo burst out his voice echoing but not loud enough to draw attention to himself. They were still in the docking station which serviced a little over a dozen shuttles a day. Voices carried easily from inside the spacious area as did the sounds of techs working on repairs. It was just a noisy area in general.

"Come on, Duo," Quatre said easily floating over. The docking station stayed at zero-G for no more reason than that it was easier to maneuver to the higher places, especially with large tools, without having to worry about gravity to weigh you down. Duo was still spaced out with everything going on and only moved when Quatre got to him and tugged on his arm.

They'd become pretty good friends quickly especially while on the shuttle. Since the time after Wufei and Duo's little heart to heart, Duo had started to open up more to them bit by bit.

He still wasn't telling them much about OZ, but he at least didn't mind telling them about life at Maxwell Church. Whenever Heero looked and caught sight of Duo looking his way, he thought he could see a bit more of his personality there in his eyes. He seemed less guarded now at least.

Duo seemed to take notice of Heero looking at him, the smile on his face dropping for a moment. Heero thought for a moment he saw red growing in the other's cheeks. But then he found himself staring into the glimmering Violet eyes and ended up quickly turning away, heart thundering in his chest.

Heero wasn't accustomed to this feeling, the clenching in his chest. Once he'd reported to the Colonel, he'd take a moment to talk to a nurse to make sure it wasn't anything serious he needed to be concerned over.

By the time Heero looked back, Duo was laughing and carrying on a conversation with the others animatedly like the moment never happened. Their little group floated along easily till they got to the entrance at the end. Floating into the interior of the small looking lobby made gravity become more noticeable. As he got closer to the other exit, his feet eventually hit the floor before he was walking out.

Duo had been partly avoiding him lately, ever since the whole, 'join you in the shower,' thing back in the motel on L2. It seemed only to have gotten worse since they'd been on the shuttle, especially after his latest attempt at trying to crack the password on Duo's laptop. Had he been careless in his intentions of getting inside it? He'd thought he'd kept his mind clear but maybe he hadn't.

Whenever Heero would look over at Duo he found the other staring at him. In all cases, either Heero would look away first or Duo would after the awkward moment. Whatever was going on in that skull, it made Duo a bit more cautious around him.

"So you guys made it back safely I see."

"Colonel." Heero went to attention first before he heard the others doing it behind him. Colonel Sally Po stood with hands on her hips as she watched them in amusement. She ran Division 3 and so was actually the boss of Trowa and Wufei, who were part of that division. While Heero followed under Colonel Une of Division 1, Quatre was under Colonel Noin with Division 2.

"I see you're as rude as ever," the colonel said looking past Heero. He stayed in attention.

"Then you should be used to it," Wufei said in response sounding frustrated.

She laughed a little, smiling at him with obvious fondness. "At ease." They relaxed and Heero looked back at the others. Everyone had saluted except for Wufei and Duo of course. Wufei never saluted. It might have had to do with their brother-sister type relationship despite Wufei denying it every moment. They had a unique history together, similar to Trowa and Catherine who actually were brother and sister.

"So this is subject 02?" she said walking over to the braided male.

"The name's Duo Maxwell," he corrected sounding irritated at OZ's nickname for him. Yeah…he'd made sure to correct them every time they mentioned the name quite adamantly. Something along the lines of "if you want me to come with you then you need to at least get my name right." Yeah, something like that.

"Duo huh?" She smiled at him kindly. "I apologize. We're so used to OZ's name for you. But I think I do prefer the name Duo for you more. It fits you."

"It's fine," Duo said becoming less like a cat with its ears back and rubbed his finger under his nose in a nervous reaction. Interesting. "Uh…your name?"

"My, I'm being a bit rude all around today. If I'm not careful I'll end up like Wufei." Wufei just snorted at that but didn't bother to defend himself. Well at least he knew he was rude. The words did make Duo grin though. "My name is Colonel Sally Po," she said resting a hand over her chest as she introduced herself. "I run Division 3."

"Infiltration group, right?"

"That's correct," she said smiling at him not looking the least bit surprised. "By the way, Heero," she looked at him when said his name. "Colonel Une wanted you to report to her as soon as you got back."

"Hn." Heero nodded his head though he didn't move right away looking over at Duo who quickly averted his eyes folding his arms. The Preventer frowned at the reaction before turning to Sally again.

"I'll go see her after Duo has been taken care of."

"She sounded like it was something urgent."

"…." Heero frowned before he saluted her. "Alright. I'll go see her now."

"We'll take care of things here, don't worry," Sally said walking over and patting Wufei's shoulder who scowled in response. Heero glanced at Duo frowning when the other still didn't look at him before he turned heading off. He heard Trowa mention something about visiting his sister but he'd already tuned it out. He wondered why Colonel Une was so persistent about seeing him now.

Division 1 was all the way on the other side of the space station, literally opposite of Division 3 which they stood in now. The whole HQ area was, literally, like a half moon with the docking station being the fat piece at the center. However, it was quicker to get to Division 1 by going back through the docking station to the door on the other side. Division 2 was of course in the center with its own exit through the docking station. Literally either way he went, it would take about the same amount of time to get to Division 1 from here.

When Heero got to the Division 1 side he headed for the elevator. Colonel Une's office was up on the third floor as were the other colonels. Only the most elite agents, like the four of them, and scientists were allowed access to the third floor. So unless you were summoned, you had no business trying to access the third floor. It was just common knowledge.

The second floor housed all of the dorm rooms for everyone staying onboard, divided by Division of course. His very own room was close to the elevator on the second floor, for emergency reasons of course. All four of the special elitists were like this. Despite not having anything on them to make them stand out as one of the elite, people knew who they were. Rumor mills were dangerous for a reason after all.

First floor was something like the social networking place. You had your eating places like the cafeterias, one of which he liked to sneak down to Division 2 for sometimes because of the better quality of food. Then you had places like the gym, a small garden get away, the medical team, clothing stores, and something very similar to a club where you could dance, drink, and literally just talk the night away if you were bored. There were more things too but he didn't really care for all the things that the first floor had to offer.

Heero stepped into the elevator and turned around pressing down the third floor button and at the same time announcing his name loudly enough for the elevator to register it. "Heero Yuy."

"Access granted," the elevator responded before shutting the door and starting to move. Access to the third floor required three things, voice recognition, a finger print scan, done when one touched the third button key, and announcing one's name. Without those three things and the correct clearance, the elevator would not respond.

Heero got off before looking to his left at the office door belonging to his boss. Going right would take you further down the hallway lead to an interrogation room, a few laboratories, a bathroom, and a room strategically placed at the center of the hallway hovering over the docking station. There was limited access to the room though if Heero wanted to he could easily hack into the code to get inside. He'd done it before anyway. There was also Colonel Po's office at the far end to the hallway and Colonel Noin's placed somewhere in the middle.

Heero knocked waiting for confirmation to enter before opening the door. Colonel Une wasn't at her usual spot at the desk. Instead, she stood in front of the wide expansive window, her arms behind her back as she stared out into open space.

Heero closed the door behind him before saluting going to attention. "Colonel…"

"At ease. You're not on duty right now." Heero relaxed instantly. They did this all the time. It was literally just habit now. "So," she said turning to look at him. "You found 02?" Her hair was down instead of in the usual buns most people saw her in. When dressed like this, all casual like, she stayed calmer, looser, and much more approachable. But when the buns came out, it was like a demon came with it. But she was powerful and the perfect person to run Division 1. Usually she preferred to be called Lady Une in this situation, but she was really only like this when in her office or going to a diplomatic meeting. It seemed people would listen to you better when you were in a calmer, more controlled state and not looking like you were ready to bite their heads off.

"Yeah..." Heero said, studying her. "He goes by the name of Duo Maxwell."

"Duo huh?" She walked over to her desk pouring two cups of water before she sat down. Heero walked over as well and sat down across from her grabbing one of the glasses. "Tomorrow I want you to do the simulation training. The others will probably be doing theirs as well."

"Hm?" Heero looked up at her, glass pressed to his lips in the process of getting ready to drink before he frowned lowering it down. "Is there a reason for the sudden training?"

"Just as a precaution," she said smiling and waving at him to settle his worries. But then she placed the cup back on the table and learned forward a little, placing some papers on the table in front of him. "Your last report…" she said before leaning back in the chair picking up the water. "You said in your report that OZ made robots out of a rare type of metal. Do you believe it might be the same one we used?"

"I…believe so yes." He finally took a sip of the tasteless water frowning into the glass. He'd said a lot of things in his report. To be honest, the information Duo gave them wasn't enough. The only thing he could do was assume…but from the way Duo made it sound…even if the sounds the robots produced did nullify the pain, it shouldn't have been able to crush a body high on Fly-Z that easily. But it wasn't like they could experiment on Duo to find out the results.

"Duo Maxwell is strong," he continued looking up at her. "Because of Fly-Z. I can contest to that being a true statement. I was there to see him shot point blank by the enemy and suffer no injuries. The same could be said of 01 whom I shot multiple times with little effect." Heero reached out sitting down his own cup. "It's as though his skin is an iron casing." But he'd felt that skin before. It was soft, extremely soft…almost delicate to the touch. So if it wasn't hard skin then…the elasticity maybe?

"If OZ has been making these robots like we suspect…and if they're made from the same material then we need to be prepared. It's possible they could attack us at any time."

"Yeah…but I doubt they will," Heero said frowning. "They wouldn't want that attention on them, especially attacking a well-known group like the Preventers who fall under the Queen herself."

"But if they had a reason to…OZ…no…the Romefeller Foundation that runs OZ would use it against us. And especially now that they know we have Duo Maxwell, they might try their hand at this." Her eyes turned cold as she stated her next words. "I believe they want to either retrieve the evidence of their experiments…or destroy it."

Heero didn't like the way she said that at all. It meant they were trying to recapture Duo to place him into a solitary confinement. But if that failed then they'd probably just resort to killing him outright, which would be the reason for the robots…and for 01's existence. "So now we're waiting for them to attack," Heero said and frowned a bit when he saw her nodding her head.

"It'll only be a matter of time before they do attack us…especially since we won't know what reason they'll use against us."

"Hn." Heero frowned. OZ was already something dangerous to mess with but…Romefeller…the founders of OZ wouldn't be a group he'd want to pick a battle with since they dominated most of Earth.

"On another note," Une said drawing Heero's attention to her again. "I want to get Duo Maxwell to join the Preventers."

"…What?" Did his ears really just hear right?

"Everything you said puts him down as being soldier material. He was fast enough to give you guys a run for your money." She smiled innocently enough to not make it feel like an insult…even though it was. Heero snorted narrowing his eyes slightly in frustration. She knew how to push his buttons at times too, especially when she was in the lady-like state. "And you said it yourself, he's fast, he's strong, and he's smart. He already knows about OZ and computers and I'm betting he's good with fighting too."

"…." Well it wasn't like he could say anything against it. Duo could fight...seeing he was good enough to stop one of Heero's kicks. "…Can you trust him?"

"Hm?"

"Duo Maxwell," Heero said staring straight into her brown eyes. "Can you trust him? We barely know anything about him except that he was an orphan made OZ experiment."

"…Well let me reverse that question and ask…do you trust him?"

"…I…" Heero frowned looking down at the partly full glass on the table. Did he trust Duo? Well it was true that he'd, so far, never been lied to. He'd thought that when they were riding back from L2. But at the time he'd just been thinking of Duo as a person. Thinking of Duo as a comrade, as someone that would be fighting beside him…did he trust Duo like that? Could he trust Duo to protect his back in a battle?

Well it wasn't like he was that much better after trying to hack into Duo's diary. It'd been a failed attempted to the point he'd just given up. But that didn't stop him from making a copy of the files and saying he'd check them out when he got back. But…he really had no right to say he didn't trust Duo when he was doing things behind his back as well.

"…"

"Hmm…I wanted to put him through the simulation testing as well but…" she smiled at him and he couldn't help looking up and frowning at her in suspicion. "For now we'll put him through the Preventers training. Usually it takes a month to do…but I'm giving it a week in his case. The trainers will be the four of you who escorted him here. I'm sure there will be no problems with this."

"That seems kind of-"

"You can start training him tomorrow afternoon. And after the training is done, before we make our decision on him being a Preventer, I'll ask you again if you can trust him." She smiled at him before she stood up from the chair. "In the meantime, you should get your rest for tomorrow. I'm sure you must be tired from your travels."

"Colonel-"

"Dismissed, Yuy." She said it kindly, but the look in her eyes showed she brooked no argument. Even a lady could get tired of being nice all the time.

"…Ma'am…" Heero stood saluting her before he turned leaving room. This was bothering him now. How did she expect him to rest when she was making him think about all these things? OZ…Romefeller…Duo…the Preventers as a hole. The Preventers were there to protect the peace and to make sure that Romefeller didn't get out of hand since everyone knew they had little love for the colonies. They were there to stop the little skirmishes that rogue soldiers had.

Whether Duo joined or not was irrelevant. He would do everything in his powers to keep war from destroying mankind. And if it meant having to kill stupid leaders, then he'd do just that. And even though the thought of Duo joining them as a team bothered him, he couldn't necessarily say he didn't get at least a little bit excited at the thought.

For now though, he'd make a little run to the nurse before he headed to his room to wind down. Tomorrow was going to be a long day…not just for him, but apparently for the others and Duo as well.

TBC….

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Hope you enjoyed the chapter. I know did when I wrote it. :D Also so much fun teasing Heero.


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